


Necrosis

by Kairomone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Dark fic, Eventual Smut, Evil Sakura, F/M, Romance, maybe some horror elements, some exploration of Jashinism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:27:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 24,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24822322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairomone/pseuds/Kairomone
Summary: Sakura would have never imagined that her nighttime hobby could lead to a partnership that would change her already dangerous hobby for something much more deadly and exciting.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Hidan
Comments: 29
Kudos: 54
Collections: Death and Evil





	1. Skeletons in The Closet

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning Sakura and Hidan are bad people in this story, they're villains, so if you're expecting something flowery and fluffy turn around now. It's still gonna be stupid edgy and droky though, so nothing too serious. Oh yeah, I also tried out different accents. While it's an AU this still has some basic elements from the canon, like the chakra system and the profession of a ninja, except it's all in our time, like a mix of the Naruto world and our world.
> 
> As always I have picked out music to fit this story. Fair warning it's black metal (which I've been told is an acquired taste), though the two songs I'm going to suggest aren't pure black metal, so it might not be that awful. For Hidan it's ΧΞΣ (666) by Rotting Christ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJbqplkBBv8 and for Sakura it's Ulvinde by Myrkur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9cNZQIzShc
> 
> Warnings: murder, assault, character death, maybe some torture, gore and body horror. I have all of the story drafted, but I still need to decide how graphic I want to go, so some things might change.

The TV from across the room softly described the latest charity ball thrown by the Hokage, multiple images and video clips adding visual aid. It was droll and boring, nothing she didn't already know. Yet she watched if just to see the face of her childhood friend again.

She'd finished her meager lunch of a banana and a sandwich half an hour ago. The doctor's lounge was empty, rest of the doctors and interns running their shifts. She should probably go back as well and finish the five hours left of her own shift. If only she didn't feel dead on her feet. Last night she'd been a bit too enthusiastic with her latest find and had spent the better part of the night elbow deep in experiments. Only when her subject had died, had she realized that it was morning and she had had to go to work in three hours.

It had been worth it, though. She was making good progress and soon she'll have a new healing technique that hopefully will help in saving gravely injured patients.

The TV programme switched to a soap opera and Sakura lost interest. She rubbed her tired eyes; the lack of sleep making her head feel like cotton.

"Sakura! There you are."

She jolted in her comfy seat. For as long as she could she pretended she hadn't heard the shrill yell of her best friend. Ino had been pestering her for weeks now, trying to find a boyfriend for her just so they could go on a double date with Ino's own new boyfriend. It was so stupid and juvenile Sakura had tried to ignore her attempts in every way. Yes, they had made a deal many years ago to one day have a double date and yes, both of them had been hormone-induced teenagers. Still, Sakura couldn't grasp why Ino was holding onto that little deal and why was she so persistent to make it true right now.

The said woman dropped herself in a chair from across her, crossing her hands on the table. A huge shit-eating grin marred her face. "So..." she started, conversationally.

Sakura pretended to be more interested in the soap on the TV. Margaret's dramatic discovery that her baby daddy wasn't Leon but Tony was truly fascinating and she felt for the woman. Truly.

"You do know I'm only doing what's best for you."

Her head snapped towards Ino, confused at the odd word choice. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, c'mon Sakura, you're 26 and you're already acting like a crabby old spinster. You need to get laid."

Sakura spluttered. "I do not." Okay, maybe she'd had more nights than she'd like to admit when she'd foregone sleep and maybe she had a tendency to be a crabby bitch when tired. But that absolutely, positively did not mean she needed to get laid. "Have shame, Pig, you sound like a sexist man."

Ino laughed, throwing out her hands. "See! You even sound like one." She composed herself, the smile dropping from her lips. "But in all seriousness, you look like hell. You need a break, Forehead. You've been working too hard, you've been cancelling all of our plans. Shit, you even cancelled on Hinata's wedding anniversary party last weekend."

She winced, directing her attention back to the TV.

Ino continued, counting down on her fingers. "Shikamaru's birthday, Ten Ten's planned girls night out, Temari's engagement party. Fuck, Sakura, you even ditched me on my birthday." She slammed her hands on the table, rattling the vase of flowers. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you hate us."

Sakura was tense, eyes unwavering from the TV. Ino was right about everything and the fact that she was calling her out meant that she'd been reckless. She was a passionate soul and loved what she did, getting lost in her work and her experiments was only natural. Lately, she'd been on a cusp of a breakout of something new, and it occupied her mind and having a social life had been put on the back-burner. It wasn't like she could disclose what had been keeping her attention to Ino anyway. It wasn't exactly ethical or legal.

"So, that's why I set you up for a blind date."

She sat straighter. "You did what!?"

"Well, it's more like a blind date for you. He knows what you look like, I showed him your picture. But don't worry I know the guy and he's a total snack. A bit on the crude side, though I doubt that'll be a problem for you."

Sakura opened and closed her mouth, at a loss for words.

"And don't even dare to bail on this, I'll know if you do." She glared, pursing her lips. Then she clapped her hands in a total one-eighty. "I hope that this works out. I've been dying to set up a double date."

She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Ino, I don't want to date. I don't need a man in my life."

"Then a woman!"

"No! Listen, I appreciate what you're doing for me, but please understand that work is important to me ("Yeah, you're basically married to it.") and it's what I'm passionate about. If that makes me a spinster, then so be it because I'm happy like this."

Ino frowned, dipping her head. "Maybe so. Though you're driving yourself to ruin like this. I have eyes, Sakura and each day you look more awful. You need a change of pace in life. Please, give this a chance. Pretty please. For me and for yourself." She pouted, sticking out her lower lip almost cartoonishly.

Deadpan Sakura stared at her friend. She wasn't going to give on this, no matter how many puppy dog eyes Ino threw at her. Her past self might have been enamoured with love and boys (mostly one boy in particular), but she had changed, she had found something that excited her way more than the flutter of butterflies from her first kiss. Maybe she had been lacking a bit in self-care lately and maybe she was more irate than usual, but that did not translate to her needing to date or to get dicked down or whatever.

"Fine." Yet the damn guilt got to her. She had been ditching out on her friends for months and while she was scared that secretly they could see right through her and what she actually was doing, she couldn't avoid them forever. Someone could get suspicious and find out, and she didn't fancy the outcome that might come from that. On the bright side, if the date was absolutely horrendous maybe she'll use the guy as a new test subject.

Ino beamed. "Wonderful. You won't regret this, Forehead. A break is just what you need."

For the remainder of her lunch break, Ino grilled her about what she'll wear, how she should write the date and time down and how if she dares to forget she'll blast her phone with angry messages. And admittedly by the end of it, Sakura was kind of excited herself. It did sound like something super simple and stress-free, something she'd been missing from her life. Maybe Ino was right – she did need a break.

xxx

The cafe Ino had chosen for them was posh yet rustic with chandeliers made from antlers, stuffed deer busts on the wall, heavily padded soft yellow chairs around the tables, expertly draped, wine red curtains and champagne coloured walls. Across the six tables lining the windows was a bar. The candleholder that was made out of an antler on the bar immediately caught her eye, and she grinned. It was a small place yet homey.

A few patrons were chatting amongst themselves. Soft jazz music filled the room. The bartender was animatedly conversing with one of the patrons at the bar.

Sakura positioned herself on the closest barstool, straightening her skirt as she sat. The bartender excused himself from the conversation to greet her and hand her a menu.

She felt skittish and no matter how she sat on the stool she couldn't find a comfortable position. Her eyes raked over the menu, not really reading the words. It had been a long while since she'd last had a date, let alone a blind one. She pulled out her phone from her purse to check the time. Five minutes till six. She'd arrived early as she always did.

At the back of her mind, she reprimanded herself for stressing so much over a flimsy date (Ino had been at fault for hyping it up so much). She faced much more nerve-wracking situations almost daily, this should be a cakewalk for her. That's right, she didn't care what some guy might think of her, she was better than that and there was no reason to stress over that. Part of her had always wanted for everyone to like her and sometimes it was hard to kick the habit.

Her mind wandered. Usually right about this time she'd be back at her lab, experimenting or just having fun. A list of things she thought would be fun to do after the date formed in her mind. If she was trying new things today maybe she should switch up her usual process as well and see how that works out. Hmm, out of the box thinking might even be the missing piece she has for her technique.

"You must be Sakura."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice very near to her. Automatically she smiled finally coming face to face with her blind date and...uh wow. The first thing that caught her eye were his vibrant lilac eyes and the easy, crooked smile across his lips.

"You must be Hidan then." She returned in a way of greeting. Ino hadn't been wrong, he was a snack. A strong jawline, straight nose, neat, slicked-back silver hair. He had on a simple, black button-down with the top two buttons undone and dark jeans. A silver chain that dipped in his shirt towards a pendant she couldn't see was around his neck. She wasn't sure, but there also was a slightly purplish tint to one of his eyes as if he'd been healing from a black eye. Somehow that just added to the appeal and the devil may care vibe he was giving off.

He easily slid into the barstool next to her and wordlessly she handed him the menu she'd been holding. While he eyed it, she observed him and his easy posture, how he slightly sat with his body facing her. He whistled lowly. "This is a bit out of my price range, sorry to say." He spoke differently, there was an accent that wasn't local to Fire country. Must be a foreigner then.

Sakura smiled warmly. "That's okay. I totally agree. I figure we can just get drinks instead." That's what she got for trusting Ino to choose a place – the blonde loved elegant and extravagant places.

The bartender finally came around to them again and they ordered their drinks. She got a piña colada and he got a bloody mary. Upon silent agreement, they paid for their drinks separately.

Before the silence could elongate and get awkward Sakura jumped on the first topic of conversation she could think of. "So, how'd you get that shiner?"

Hidan chuckled, running fingers over the bruise and accepting the drink the bartender set down for him. "Didn't think it still would be that visible." Something clinked when he picked up the glass and she noticed a silver signet ring on his index finger. He took a sip of the bloody mary and continued, "Bloke just got lucky with his hit, 'ts all. Hazards of the job and all that."

She thanked the bartender for her drink before turning back to Hidan, curious. "Oh? What kind of job has the hazard of getting punched in the face?"

He swished the ice around in his drink with the celery stalk. "Government job. Nothing interesting really, it's all bureaucracy an' mountains of paperwork."

She'd beg to differ. Government job that involved physical harm could only mean that he was working as a ninja. She hadn't noticed before, but his chakra signature was stronger than a regular civilian would have. This just made it all the better in case the date wouldn't work out. Snagging ninja for experiments was a lot easier, people expected them to die early. She took a sip of her drink, enjoying the taste. It'd been a while since she'd last had anything alcoholic.

"What about you, what do you do?" He finally met her eyes, and her stomach did a flip. Uh oh...

"Oh, I'm a resident at Konoha General hospital. Working my way up into the diagnostics team."

Conversation after that flowed easily. Her suspicions about him being a foreigner got confirmed when he admitted that he was here on vacation for a while. Though she didn't miss how he avoided giving her straight answers, giving vague details as to where he was from and what he was doing in Konoha. He constantly tried to steer the conversation towards her and get her to talk about herself with this easy smile and interest that if she had been a less cautious person she would have spilt her guts.

It was a battle if anything and she wasn't afraid of participating, giving vague answers in return with a coy bat of her lashes while trying to pry more into his affairs in return.

For half an hour they danced around each other until their drinks were done and with a mutual agreement, they left the cosy but admittedly pricey cafe.

"So where do you suggest we go next?" Hidan had donned a black jacket, hands stuffed in the pockets of it. He leisurely matched her pace.

Sakura grinned and named the furthest dance club she knew. He showed no indication of knowing that she'd purposefully had done that, only nodding in an affirmative and jumping into a conversation about some kind of space discovery that had been announced on the news recently. Sakura gladly contributed, asking questions, finding his interest in space transport developments appealing.

She huddled her hands deeper in her own jacket, the late-night chill biting her skin.

There was something different about him, something she couldn't quite name. She could admit that confidence was sexy on a man, but he seemed more than confident like he was sure he was winning some kind of game.

The streets were dark, the street lamps illuminating everything in hues of dull orange. Drunk students loitered around the corners. As a local, she knew the place quite well and purposefully stuck to the less walked paths where the side-walk was run down and overgrown shrubbery hanged over their heads. No street lights. The path was narrow enough that in order to walk side by side she brushed against his hand every few steps.

He was quite passionately describing one of his favourite TV shows. As someone who hardly had any time to watch TV, she could just listen and nod along.

Sakura liked Hidan, she really did, but she liked her job much more and while she enjoyed talking with him, and she could only imagine how he would be in the sack, she got a weird vibe of off him. A vibe she knew quite well. If she were a regular woman, this probably would be the point where she'd thank him for the wonderful time and briskly walk back to her car while throwing worried glances over her shoulder.

She wasn't a regular woman, though.

They wandered off the side-walk. Sakura knew a shortcut through this one particular parking lot. It was dark, the only light the moon overhead and street lights up ahead. She weaved through the cars, Hidan right on her tail. Her eyes scanned the surrounding buildings, the nearby fence and the bushes. Her hand had a tight grip over her trusty syringe in her pocket.

Conversation had died down and the air between them was tense. His gaze was burning the back of her head.

A gleeful smile threatened to cross her features. This was so easy, ninja or not, she had an upper hand over him and the element of surprise on her side. Her hands shook slightly from the excitement on what she was about to do. She was going to be the first to strike.

The crunch under their boots was loud in the quiet between them, a random far off passing car only breaking the tense silence.

There. Her eyes locked on a smaller building at the edge of the parking lot, just before the fence. It was perfect – no direct light bushes all around.

Sakura turned to face him with a smile on her face. She was only briefly caught off guard at the intense dark look on his face.

One moment they were looking at each other, the next she had her syringe poised at the ready near his neck and he had a butterfly knife pressing into her throat.

"I knew there was somethin' fucking fishy about you." His voice was low and menacing, accent rougher, in complete contrast to the grin on his face.

She swallowed, the knife pressing into her throat even more at the action. "Likewise." She tried to not think about the fact that he'd seen right through her ruse and worse had responded with the same fervour.

"What's in the syringe, love?" he motioned with his head towards her hand in the process bringing the needle closer to his neck. "Something that could knock me out I bet."

She kept her face in a cool neutral, head held high. She didn't like the pet name. "What's with the knife, darling?" she mimicked his tone in mocking.

He chuckled shortly, stepping closer to her, making both of them to rearrange the positions of their weapons. "Oh, I think you know." He licked his lips as his eyes searched her face. "And here I thought I'd be gettin' just a fuckin' boring date."

Sakura inhaled sharply and measured a dark glare his way. She couldn't believe that he was turned on by this. It almost irritated her. He should be afraid, trembling in his boots, begging for her not to inject him. Yet here he was, standing toe to toe with her and enjoying it. How fucked up one could be? "Why are you here?"

Hidan pretended to think for a moment like she'd just asked him what kind of ice cream flavour he liked, and it peeved her. It was like he wasn't even scared that she could inject him with what was an unknown substance to him. "Vacation, I wasn't lyin' 'bout that. Don't worry, 'm not here to invade your turf."

She exhaled a bitter laugh. "I'm not an animal. There are no turfs."

He hummed in appreciation. "No, you're not. You're a killer, jus' like me."

Her eyes didn't waver from his. He'd given himself away right on the spot. Cocky bastard. "And what are we gonna do about that?" No point in denying the obvious.

He shrugged with a laugh. "Dunno, you tell me."

The need to just push the needle into his skin was overbearing, she was so close. Yet she couldn't risk it without endangering her own life – she pushed, he sliced her throat. The knife was sharp, the cool metal prickled her skin.

In a swift move, she removed her hand and stepped back just as he did the same. Their unified actions freaked her out a bit; it was like he could read her mind. Keeping her eyes on his figure, she was pleased to note that he was just as tense as she was, despite the grin.

Sakura pocketed her syringe just as he closed the knife and slipped it in the pocket of his jeans. "You stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours."

"Is that what you want?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Hidan stuffed his hands in his pockets and casually took a few steps around as if he hadn't just been almost sedated. "The way I see it, this is a unique opportunity. A chance to experience something new. Dontcha think?"

She kept her hands balled to try and stifle her shaking and the need to move, to punch him in the face, anything. "No." And with that at the risk of getting attacked, she turned her back to him and walked away. She kept her gait measured and confident all the while his gaze burned her back. If he'll attack her, she'll just use her superior strength to rearrange his face.

Just like him, she wasn't afraid.

In a confident stride, she walked back to her car only then allowing herself to look over her shoulder. He had walked the other way, but she could never be too sure with ninja, that is if he even was one. She got into her car and as soon as the door was closed she exhaled slowly, the adrenaline leaving her body. Still, she was going to be restless for the rest of the night unless she got all of the pent-up energy out. Hitting the gym probably was the best choice, the punching bag was screaming her name.

In a way Hidan had been right – it was a unique situation. It wasn't every day she came across someone who killed for the shits and giggles. Of course, she didn't know how Hidan did it, but her first guess was that he was really reckless in a dumb teenager kind of way.

Ninja did assassination missions, despite mainly doing espionage missions. Some of her friends were ninjas, so she wasn't a stranger to people who killed. Hidan, on the other hand, was different. It was possible that just like her he did it for personal reasons, though unlike her it seemed like he enjoyed or even got off on the killing. She scrunched her nose.

While they both killed, they were not the same. She was in no rush to ever see him again.

xxx

Next day during her rounds Ino caught her in the hallway. Ino had just finished a difficult surgery and was telling her all about the success until she got that mischievous sparkle in her eye. A string of excuses formed in her mind while she kept her face neutral.

"So how did the date go?"

Sakura stayed quiet for a while, letting Ino stew in curiosity. "Interesting."

Ino exhaled in exasperation. "Oh, c'mon is that all you have to say? What did you think of Hidan? Was he a match for you?"

She tuned out the rest of the questions by reading a patients chart. Oh, that's right, she'll have to do labs for Miss Kaname, something she quite enjoyed to do herself; it was therapeutic.

Ino caught on to her quick and changed the subject. "You know that this means that you can't bail on me and Temari on Saturday, don't you? We planned this." She emphasized the last part with a stern look and a finger waggle like she was a disobedient child.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Of course, the plans, all of the damn plans Ino had made to integrate her back into their friend circle, ignoring all of her protests to have some time to herself. "Sure." She fake smiled.

Goodbye to her free time and to her precious experiments and projects. This was going to be hard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had this story in mind ever since 2017 back when I used to watch documentaries about serial killers a lot. It just inspired me to write a story about that topic as well. Initially, this was going to be a lot more serious, but then I realized that I'm not going to have fun writing it otherwise. It's pretty romanticized here all things considered. In reality, this stuff is a lot darker, they're the scum of the planet and they engage in actions that I won't write about on principle i.e. rape, sexual abuse.
> 
> For serial killers rape is all about power and control, they want to dominate someone completely. Now this kind of behaviour simply didn't align with Sakura and Hidan's MO - Hidan is a religious zealot and Sakura is the crazy doctor type (I very much realize that she kind of is similar to Orochimaru here lol). Another thing I tried to show is how both of them have this calm and charm. In real life, most of the serial killers have been described by the people who knew them as someone normal, someone who was nice and caring and in fact very charming and when the truth came out a lot were shocked and surprised because they couldn't believe that this loving family man who took out his kids sledging could murder and rape in cold blood.
> 
> Oh yeah, this was also a birthday fic to myself. You can also go on my Tumblr Rhearenee-Magane where I posted some art in relation to this story https://rhearenee-magane.tumblr.com/tagged/rhearenee
> 
> Thank you for sticking with this story this far. Also, please leave a comment or anything it always means a lot.


	2. Under The Killing Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a while to update, but damn had life been busy and even now when I have assignments to finish I can't concentrate because the fact that I haven't updated in over a month keeps bothering me. Hopefully, after this I'll be able to update this without such a long break in between.
> 
> Also to anyone who is interested here's the whole playlist for the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIk1f0_5FPA&list=PLed0MHVrUWLLJwhIoR5bhfO5-cA-KQLs_ just put it on shuffle.

Her eyes darted over the busy hallway while pretending to read the chart in her hands. Everything seemed the same. No one paid her any attention. Yet, her grip on the board didn't decrease. Meaningless chatter, beeps and shouts filled the hallway. It was just a regular day in Konoha General hospital. She had just finished her rounds – saved a patient from choking on their own blood, stopped an intern from administering a lethal dose, and those were just the highlights.

The weekend with Ino and Temari had been its own form of torture. She hadn't been elated to go on their impromptu shopping trip in the first place, so her crabby mood was visible from the start. Both women had made it their mission to pester her to have more fun. It wasn't very successful. In her defence, shopping for formal attire wasn't fun and loitering around in the mall for hours always gave her a headache. Double the crabby Sakura.

The paranoia ran rampant, though. Now when Hidan had seen through her like glass, she was afraid that someone else might jump out of the wood-works and point fingers at her. She'd always had a healthy dose of paranoia in her. This was different. She hadn't even been able to walk out of her house without checking the perimeter twice or checking the locks on all the doors in her house. The constant glances over her shoulder became almost second nature.

Ino's pestering didn't help. For the entire weekend she couldn't go to her lab, let alone search for a new testing subject from the fear of someone catching her in the act. Though, Sakura had to admit that the film night at the end of their shopping spree with Ino and Temari had been relaxing. Somewhat. The wine helped dull the edges.

The hold up on her project was stressing her out though. She had no outlet for her energy and her mind was constantly burning and hands itching with everything she could do to improve her technique. But with Ino constantly breathing down her neck, she was too scared to even look towards her lab.

Ino was out on a mission, and Sakura had no space to breathe.

Hidan was the unknown variable. She could predict what Ino might do. She couldn't say the same about Hidan. And it unnerved her. He knew her secret and there was nothing she could do about it, only hope that he won't use it against her.

It was lunch break for her and in order to get out of the four walls of the hospital; she wandered into the city. It was a feeble attempt to air her head and stifle her paranoia.

She had meant to just go on a quick trip to the nearest coffee shop for a fancy, overpriced latte. Instead, it turned into a game of will this random person who briefly glanced at her accuse her of doing shady shit.

It was official; she had lost her marbles.

After a nerve-racking walk to the coffee shop, she had relaxed some. Her rational side knew that she was overreacting, and she clung to it.

All of that flew out the window when a head of familiar silver hair passed her peripheral. In a matter of seconds, she ducked behind a corner of a shop.

It was just an old person, right? She was overreacting again, right?

Peeping from her hiding spot, her fears rung true. It was Hidan with a woman by his side crossing the street. They were conversing with smiles on their faces. Sakura didn't know the woman, but she immediately recognized Hidan's smile for what it was – an act to make his victims feel comfortable. She had seen his true face and the one he was wearing now was fake.

She wanted nothing to do with him, yet she couldn't deny the morbid curiosity she had about him. How did he kill? What did he use? Maybe this was her chance to find more about him and get the upper hand in case he blackmailed her.

He hadn't noticed her.

Sakura quickly pulled her hair back into a small ponytail and brought the lapels of her jacket closer to her. Idly she scurried out of her hiding place and followed him and the woman, always keeping few pace distance between them.

A couple of times he threw a backwards glance, and she'd had to duck behind a corner of a shop.

Her heart thundered in her chest. Hidan wasn't her usual prey, and the notion of him catching her in the act scared the shit out of her. In contrast, the chance of getting caught and the fear egged her on. It was a rush like no other.

Throughout the walk, Hidan and the woman were animatedly chatting.

She couldn't help the deja vu that she had back to their supposed date last week. Really? How did he find this woman so fast? She knew that he was charming and good looking, but not that good.

For ten minutes she followed them, keeping track of the surroundings. It became clear that Hidan might not have been as new to the city as he previously had let on. The route he chose was the shortest to the thicket of woods near the outskirts of the city.

The blonde girl at his side was growing weary, eyeing the surroundings with a nervous tilt. The tactic he was pulling was very familiar to her, it was the same one she had been trying to pull on him. Whether it was coincidence, it still seemed eerie to her.

Staying in the shadows just a few meters behind them, she followed.

It was like a switch the moment Hidan dropped all pretenses he latched onto the blonde girl's arm and dragged her into the small patch of woods. She didn't get a chance to scream her protest before he slapped a forceful hand over her mouth.

She snuck closer. His back was to her. None of what they were saying drifted to her.

The blonde woman was shivering violently, struggling against his grip, but he had her pinned against a tree. With his free hand he pulled out his butterfly knife and in a practised movement flipped the blade open.

Sakura almost scoffed. Did he seriously kill them with just a simple stab or slice? How boring.

But then he dragged the knife down the side of the woman's face, drawing blood. She whimpered away from the blade, thrashing her limbs. He brought the bloody knife to his lips, licking the blood.

Odd, then again, nothing ever was normal about deviants.

Hidan leaned closer to her, whispering. With his knife, he carved a symbol on her forehead. Blood instantly flowed down her face in rivulets.

She squinted, trying to discern what it was, but all she could make out was a circle.

Hmm...labelling his victims, also pretty cliche and standard of him. If he'll use her for sexual pleasure, that's when Sakura will bail. There's only so much cliché she can handle.

He chanted loudly, words she didn't understand, stepping away from the woman. She stood, eyes huge, chest heaving.

Sakura tilted her head, hugging the tree she was hiding behind. He had let go of her and she hadn't run at all. Could she be paralysed from fear? Kind of stupid of her.

Hidan fiddled with something at his front, almost as if he was unbuttoning his shirt. Then he extended his arm with the knife and stabbed himself in the chest.

She blinked. There were a lot of things she had done, things she had seen. This was a first.

He was still standing, chanting. The woman lurched and clutched at her chest before she fell on the ground.

It all happened so fast. How did he do it? What...? Why did he stab himself? How was he standing? Many questions flew through her mind in light speed. It made very little sense.

"Didya enjoy the show, love?" Hidan had turned around and was looking straight at her, knife protruding from his chest.

Sakura couldn't help it, she gaped. Him knowing about her presence the entire time the last thing on her mind.

"Jashin prefers for the rituals to be longer and for them to involve a lot more pain, but sadly I'm a bit pressed for time here. Can't exactly let my freak fly free in the middle of the day." He chuckled and casually pulled the knife from his chest.

She watched enraptured as the wound bled for a little before it closed up in rapid speed. "What are you?" She breathed, unconsciously stepping closer. The doctor in her was fascinated at the healing rate. It was exactly what she'd been trying to recreate for months. She could activate a similar healing factor through her byakugou seal, though for it to work she had to collect chakra for months. His healing was instant. There were no marks on his body to show for there being something like that at play.

"Immortal. It's the gift any faithful follower of Jashin receives."

Swallowing thickly, she finally met his amused lilac gaze. "What is this Jashin exactly?"

He waved his knife at her in a scolding manner. "Now, now first you have to show me how you do it before I go spillin' out my secrets. 'ts only fair."

Sakura scowled, curling her lip in distaste. "I don't have to show you anything."

Hidan hummed, grinning while eyeing his knife with adoration. "True. And I don't have to tell you anything either, though I suspect you're deeply curious." He pointedly glanced at her.

And she sucked in her lip, biting on it. She had been staring at his exposed chest the entire time, observing the smooth flesh where the puncture wound should have been. What did she have to lose? He already knew about her and while the prospect of revealing herself more to him petrified her, the chance to find out the secret to this magical healing was too appealing. It was like he was teasing her with the solution to all of her experiments. She was almost tempted to say no just to shoot down that smug-ass grin. “Fine, I’ll show you. Though I need to prepare first,” she bit out through clenched teeth.

"Whatever works for you, love."

"Stop calling me that," she snapped, and he truly looked confused. "Love, you keep calling me that. I'm not your love."

Realization passed over his face. "Oh, does it bother you, my sweet?"

She pursed her lips. Maybe calling him out on the pet name was a mistake. He seemed to do it unconsciously before. She scoffed. "Whatever." And turned around to walk away.

He caught up to her, casually matching her pace. "How 'bout dinner later tonight?"

"Don't you need to be cleaning up your mess?" She idly motioned back to the crumpled form of the woman.

"Nah, I don't really care what happens to it afterwards." He shrugged, fiddling the knife in his hands.

Briefly her eyes strayed to the knife. His laid back attitude was concerning. "You're not afraid of getting caught?"

"Immortal, remember? I've got nothin' to worry 'bout."

Sakura flattened her lips. She would beg to differ, but ultimately it was his hide on the line and she didn't care enough to argue over it. "Fine, ten o'clock, my place and be on time." She pulled out a stray-away business card from the pocket of her jacket and a pen and wrote her address down on it. After a short deliberation, she wrote the time as well.

He eyed the card weirdly. "The Hokage?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't ask." It was just a random old card she had from the time Kakashi was Hokage. Didn't mean she kept in touch with them anymore.

Hidan shrugged and pocketed it. "Any preference for drinks?"

They'd made it out of the woodsy area and now were walking along a street. It was relatively deserted, thank god. Hidan's appearance would raise some eyebrows. He hadn't bothered to either button his shirt or clean off the blood. Reckless didn't even cover it.

"You were serious about the dinner?" She didn't think she would have to feed him as well, that it had just been empty talk.

"'course, a man's gotta eat sometime too."

She fought back the urge to sigh. She would prefer just to cut to the chase and get it over with, so she could learn about this Jashin faster. Still, it didn't mean that she won't google the bastard later. "Fine, bring some white wine." If he was so hellbent on wining and dining, she'll comply.

xxx

Sakura had to start the dinner late that evening, already knowing that she'll have to do overtime with her shift. So only about 10 PM she had been done with dinner – a simple potato roast with salad.

She hadn’t done anything fancy on purpose, to accentuate that this was purely business and she wasn’t interested in what he was trying to pull at all. She wasn’t even sure what he was trying to achieve by suggesting dinner. To drive the point home she dressed in a simple dark jean skirt and a strappy top with a cartoon mouse on it. To not appear like she was a total slob, she did set up the table with a wine red table cloth and some atmospheric candles and flower decorations. She had some standards after all.

Hidan had arrived on the dot just as she'd been setting the dinner. She was pleased to note that he had dressed just as casually as her and had brought the promised wine. With a few fake pleasantries and comments about her home, they settled to eat. It was jarring to be back where they started, not to mention today he'd talked about the damn weather of all things. It was like he pointedly avoided talking about what they were going to do today.

All throughout the dinner she had to bite down her nerves. She was about to let him in her secret lab, in her sanctuary. It was a tremendous risk. Especially when she barely knew anything about him. It was suspicious on how easily he'd revealed himself and his tricks. She didn't know how he'd done it just that it had involved chanting and possibly symbols. He hadn't revealed everything, just teased her with it. He was a surprising mix of cunning and recklessness.

At one point she grew tired of the talk about fucking nothing, and she switched the subject to something much more interesting. "Tell me what you really do?"

Without taking his eyes off his plate he replied, "Like I said, it's a government job, it's all hush-hush on the down low, can't really tell you."

Dubiously, she titled her head. She called bullshit.

Hidan sighed, dropping his fork. "Fine, fine, you don't have to give me that look."

She grinned, satisfied. That was a lot easier than she expected.

"I'm a contract killer."

"You're shitting me?"

"Naw. Even the higher ups have gnats they have to get rid of. Who do they call? Me."

Sakura pursed her lips. "That's not a government job that's illegal."

He shrugged. "Gotta tell the normies something. Doubt it would be okay to tell I take out the unwanted trash for the Mizukage or whatever."

"The Mizukage?"

"Yeah. Real nice lady."

She laughed, shaking her head, taking a sip from her wineglass. "I really should be less surprised to find out that the government is corrupt."

Hidan smirked, leaning forward, the candlelight lighting up his face in warm tones. "No one is truly pure, love. We all have a little evil in us. The difference is whether or not you act upon it."

A bit shocked, she fell back in her chair and chuckled.

"Why so surprised?"

She composed herself by clearing her throat. "Well...I didn't think you could be so insightful. My first impression was that you're kind of a dumbass."

He snorted, but didn't comment.

"What with you recklessly leaving evidence behind, leaving identifying signs, risking-"

"I get it, Sakura." He laughed.

She smiled shyly. "Sorry, I didn't mean-" she cut herself off. Why was she apologizing? He wasn't even offended. She shouldn't care, shouldn't try to appease him. This was purely business, and she was always honest. It would be disadvantageous to become a people pleaser again. To save the situation, she switched topics. "Why do you do it?"

Hidan didn't even blink, instantly getting what she meant. "For Lord Jashin and because I like it. You?"

"For science."

He nodded his head in bewilderment. "And that's it?"

"Yep."

"I don't believe you." He snorted, twirling the wine in his glass. "You're just another sick fuck like the rest of us. If you didn't enjoy it you wouldn't do it again."

Sakura curled her lip and balled her hands in her skirt, but refrained from answering.

"Admit it, Sakura. You like to play the holy mother and pretend you're doing good, but you're the same as me, the same fucked up scumbag that enjoys causing pain." He peered at her with a smug look.

"It's not wise to assume when you don't even know how I work," she sneered, raising her head.

He slouched in his seat, leaving his hands on the table – the perfect picture of nonchalance. "What's there to assume? You're a doctor, you have this constant prissy attitude and I _'m better than everyone else_ air aroun' you. I 'ain't daft, it's obvious that you think you're doing this for some kind of greater good. Newsflash, sweetheart, good people don't murder others for fucking science."

In restrained patience, she sipped her wine. He didn't know shit about her. She didn't go around pretending to be good, she just did what she thought was necessary to advance medical science. This did not make her into a 'fucked up scumbag'. Enjoying her work is not a sin. She slammed her glass down with perhaps a bit more force than was necessary. "Fine. Come. I'll show you my work." She got up with a loud screech of the chair and Hidan followed her with an amused expression.

She was going prove that it all was just experiments, a necessary evil for the greater good.

With a brisk walk she reached the basement door, Hidan right on her tail. She unlocked the door with the key she always kept on her person and descended the stairs into darkness. At the end of the stairwell with practised movements she unlocked the second door. Only then she turned on the lights.

Everything was in stark white, clean and polished, the lights over the steel table bright enough to fit a jewellers workstation. After the debacle with Ino, she'd cleaned up everything she had and stored in various sealing scrolls along the wall shelf. The older ones were already unusable, the subjects too far decayed to be of any value. There was no air in sealing scrolls, if unsealed older corpses exploded in her face and that was a mistake she wasn't willing to make again. Every now and then she burned the older scrolls to get rid of the evidence completely, only keeping the most valuable ones.

Keeping a wary eye on Hidan, she walked over to the wall of scrolls and pulled out one of the recent ones, taking along the folder of her notes.

For the brief moment she'd turned her back, Hidan had already gotten his hands on her surgical tools. She pulled the bone saw from his hands. "Don't touch anything."

He put up his hands in mock defence. "Fancy place you got 'ere." Just as easily he was back to observing the place and eyeing other tools. He was going to be trouble.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. She unsealed the scroll, letting the body drop on her examination table. The smell hit first. It had been a couple of days and the corpse had gone stale. She grabbed some gloves from nearby and pulled them on.

"Freaky shit, didn't know you were into playing with corpses." He was right beside her, hovering over her shoulder.

Trying to keep some distance between them, she moved to the side, glaring. "Shut up. I'm doing the talking here." When there was no protest from him she continued, opening the folder with her notes.

She started with explaining the basics that for the duration of her experiments her subjects are alive and sedated. For days she monitored their responses to her healing techniques after various levels of trauma. With the current subject she'd been trying various things out at once – heavily damaged limb healing and reattachment, poison resistance without the use of antidote and healing from heavy burns. She pointed out each experiment she’d made on the subject.

Hidan watched her explain with furrowed brows. He didn't comment, and she continued.

To save time, she usually tried to heal multiple issues at once. It was a draw of luck on whether the subject survived the extensive damage or pull through for the planned time she wanted to experiment. Some could survive a flaying and her attempts to heal, others couldn't survive a simple organ replacement.

Her goal was to create one or multiple techniques that will cover fast healing of extensive or life-threatening injuries and cure poisonous infections. Chakra exhaustion and lack of time was a huge problem in the hospital. All the current healing methods were time consuming and used copious amounts of chakra, putting an immense strain on the medics.

So far her achievement was a fast healing technique to cure blood infections, heal deep incisions and provide great aide in the replacement of organs. The decrease of chakra usage was still a work in progress. It was way less than they currently used at the hospital, but still way too much for her liking. She was a perfectionist in ways and she wasn’t satisfied with something until it was spotless.

For a while Hidan stayed quiet, observing the corpse on the table and all the experiments she had made on it.

The quiet was nerve wrecking. She had just laid most of what she was doing on the table for another person for the first time in her life. And the possibility of getting judged was crushing, even when the feeling was ridiculous. Why would he judge her? Why did she even care what he thought of her work?

To distract herself from her thoughts, she sealed the body back into the scroll and moved to put it back.

"How 'bout we do this the good old way? Me and you?"

Sakura paused, the scroll halfway back into the shelf, then she pivoted on her heel. "What do you mean?"

"This work you're doing," he briefly motioned around to her lab. "while fucked up, it's boring." He stepped closer to her, a glint in his eye, a smirk on his lips. "Don't you want something more exciting? The rush of a kill. The ability to do whatever you want with them while they scream bloody murder."

She scrunched her nose. "What makes you think I want that?"

Hidan shrugged, suddenly turning from her and casually walking back to the table. "I saw you. When you were trying to dose me, you were ready to jump out of your skin from excitement." She wanted to protest, but he cut her off loudly. "And don't deny it. You were gettin' high from the adrenaline." He turned back to her, leaning against the table, arms crossed and a huge grin on his face. "So, I'm gonna ask again: do you want to try this properly?"

For a long while they stared at each other. Her jaw was tight, hands balled. "No."

She braced herself, fully expecting him to try to convince her, possibly even bargain her with his still yet to be revealed secrets.

Instead, he threw his hands out in defeat. "Alright. It's a shame, but it's your decision." Then he smiled lightly. "I'll see you around, Sakura." And stepped back up the stairs.

Too surprised to form words, she waited until she heard the slam of her door before she dared to move from her spot and sigh. Fuck, it shouldn't have ended like this. She got no chance to ask him about Jashin and his technique. Her online search had bore very little fruit, and she was no closer to figuring out how he'd done it. What caused his supposed immortality? From where he gained the chakra to heal so fast? And, most importantly, was it applicable to other people?

Cursing loudly, she rushed to clean up the lab and lock it up.

Wait... Did he just play with her and leave her hanging?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love how I accidentally made Hidan this cunning bastard that is playing around with Sakura lol Was not my intention at all. He was supposed to appear as someone who is just rash and reckless. Instead he's a true player, teasing Sakura. But don't worry, Sakura will be playing the game in no time as well.
> 
> A huge thank you to everyone who left feedback of any kind. I didn't expect to get so many, considering the type of story this is. But I'm glad I was able to interest you guys.
> 
> While doing research I found it funny that when people asked how do these types of people find each other that one of the answers was killdar like killers have some kind of radar that just picks up like-minded people from the crowd. And it made me realize that Sakura and Hidan had some sort of killdar as well lol


	3. To Life For, To Die For

For days she was pissed at herself for letting Hidan just walk away, play her and for actually entertaining his suggestion. Ludicrous. She was a loon, a dumbass, and she should learn. Was she fucked up for even entertaining the thought of killing for fun? Yes. But did she care? Only a little. And that had startled her. This put her in the same vein as Hidan, and she was nothing like him. Not at all. She wasn't some sick fuck.

But the proposition was so damn appealing. What if she learned an alternative way to find experiment subjects? What if his way was faster? Efficiency had always been her goal and knowing that there was a plausible way to make her process faster and look down on it because of values was downright stupid. She had long since abandoned her goody-goody self and accepted herself as a woman of practicality, no matter the means.

She just couldn't get over the feeling that by accepting Hidan's offer meant degradation for her. That she was no better than the filth on earth who used others for a twisted sense of empowerment. It was just science for her, and she loved science. That's it.

Hidan had been just the topping on the shit cake that was her life. Ino had become more bearable once Sakura had engaged more in their friend group activities and responding to texts. Didn't mean that the sudden change in her private life didn't make her skittish. The girls were always excited about something or other, discussing it between themselves while she had nothing to add. She hadn't been keeping up with anything. Work was her life and she couldn't discuss it with anyone.

She was an alien among her friends.

And she hated it.

Her comfort bubble was blown up and she couldn't find any enjoyment in anything. She was constantly paranoid; she was overwhelmed, and she had had enough of it.

That night she had pushed herself to think rationally and continue with her work. It was time she found some semblance of normality back in her life. She had worn something atypical for her – a flowery sundress with a see-through cardigan and a jacket, a blonde wig and make-up with splotches of bright colour on her lids. The autumn air was chilling and her attire was far from practical. But for her intended purposes, she could face a little bit of cold on her thighs.

It was late enough that the streets were fairly deserted, only the most wicked and drunk out ambling around.

That's right, she didn't need Hidan and his mysterious methods to do this; she was plenty capable herself to find a subject. It didn't matter who they were – a drunk, a prostitute, a junkie or just a random passer-by, as long as they were breathing they fit her quota. Though she did have a preference for the deranged kind, since they were less likely to have relatives or loved ones that worried about them.

If anything, she was doing the world a service by keeping these dangerous people off the streets.

She'd been wondering for half an hour through the dark streets. Few were outside, preferring to stay inside on this chilly night. Her ass was freezing, and she was about to cut her losses and go home to sink in her warm and welcoming bed until someone in particular caught her sight across the street.

They were walking with an unsteady gait and seemed to have a conversation with themselves, motioning to random things.

Perfect.

Sakura looked both ways before she crossed the street. She kept a considerable distance, the lack of people making it easier to follow. It was definitely a guy. When he stumbled and cursed profusely, the voice told as much.

The blond guy was staggering more and more with each step. He had even stopped for a moment to squint at something from across the street.

No one else was around. It was just her, the blond guy and a bunch of street lamps illuminating the sidewalk. The area they were in was mostly old factory buildings and some shops. It couldn't be more perfect even if she tried.

She snuck closer, hand wrapped tightly around the syringe in her pocket.

He turned down another street, and she lost sight of him. Following, she pulled out the syringe, ready to jump him. But as soon as she turned the corner herself, he was gone. Confused, she relaxed a bit and continued walking, observing her surroundings. Where the hell did he go? A person couldn't just disappear like this.

Sighing and resigning herself to a loss, she turned around to walk back. Someone suddenly pulled her aside through a hedge and roughly pressed her against the nearest wall. A squeak escaped her lips before a hand pressed against her mouth.

"Why are you following me?"

Her eyes focused, the shock slowly wearing off. It was the same man she'd been following. He was visibly high, sclera tainted red.

He slowly removed his hand, blue eyes hard. A street light from behind him cast his face in deep shadows, making him appear much older and intimidating than he was.

Sakura didn't answer, keeping her face blank. A million curses ran through her mind.

He pressed more into her, face close to hers. "Seeking adventure are ya?" His breath reeked of weed. There was a slight accent to his words, an accent that she had heard from northerners before.

Anger blazed through her veins, but she tried to stem it down. He had made her drop her syringe in shock. She couldn't believe that this fucker had caught on to her while fucking high? Was she really that obvious? Gods, she was really off her game. Without her tools on hand, she'll have to play this off. Lords have mercy on her, for she was a lousy actress.

She averted her face while biting her lip and pretending to be bashful. "I'm sorry. I-I just...wanted to..."

"Wanted what?" he demanded.

Swallowing thickly, she batted her lashes. "I...don't know...to talk...I-I like you." Yeah, she sucked, especially when put on the spot like this. Maybe she should just knock him out, it might needlessly damage him, but she'll at least have a subject on hand.

He eased up on her, hostility draining from his face. "You're shite at this."

Her blood froze in her veins. What did he mean by that?

"Need to work on your tactics, hmm..." He rubbed his face in absent thought, clearly still pretty high. It barely seemed like he was understanding what was happening.

"I...uh." She sincerely hoped that it was just crazy talk. Slowly inching away from the wall, she kept a close eye on him. He seemed entirely undisturbed by the situation, like it was just another regular day in the park. "I'm just...gonna go." And she slipped past him.

"Hey!"

Sakura froze.

"Be careful. Not everyone is gonna be an easy steal." His tone was jovial and joking.

She didn't wait around to hear more and bolted straight through the hedge where he had previously pulled her through. Her heart thundered in her chest and her hands shook. A knot had settled deep in her stomach. She was afraid to voice the thought, but it screamed in her mind. This was wrong, this shouldn't be happening. But she couldn't deny that she got the same vibe off him she did from Hidan.

Bruised and scratched, she scurried back home, re-evaluating her life choices until that point. It felt like a higher force had worked against her, like someone wanted to drive her mad. Was this fair justice for all of her past deeds, or was she really that unlucky?

It wasn't the first time she had gotten caught, but it was the first time someone had called her out on her intentions like it was nothing. Was she slipping in her judgement? Or there really were more sickos out there than she thought?

The city was corrupt; the world was wrong and Sakura was so done. Ino had made an executive decision to insert herself in her life, Hidan was like a hanging axe over her head and now this! She didn't have the energy to deal with all of that. She was just a single person.

Her footsteps echoed loudly through the empty streets, each step a harsh click. Her irritation mounted.

Tomorrow Ino had set up another date for her, still on her ass about the double date thing. Of course Ino was worried, at least she claimed to be, but the pressure was eating her up and she wished her friend would see that. Work was...work, nothing had changed in that aspect. Her personal project...that had suffered greatly. No progress for weeks, and that was unacceptable. Something needed to change.

Someone will need to be cut from her life.

xxx

For the duration of the next week, she debated her decision. Hidan was the most obvious choice. He was like a pest. He had respected her refusal to join and kept his distance at first. Like a ghost in random encounters or sightings, he teased her with the idea. He never outright said it, but implied it like it was this magical thing that would change her life forever. She wanted to call bullshit on the entire ordeal. Whenever he thought it would benefit him he found her and with honey sweet smiles and gestures tried to convince her.

It was sickening, and she was tired of it.

At the end of her patience, she used his tactics against him and tracked him down. She wasn't a ninja or a sensor, but if she put her mind to it her skills were nothing to scoff at. That and Hidan had been around enough for her to memorize his signature.

He was loitering around in a grocery store, picking up vegetables. The sight was so bizarre that she had to pause and stare for a while. In her mind he was this dark and dangerous person who probably bathed in the blood of his victims, and seeing him do something so mundane as grocery shopping was a startling jolt to her perception. He wasn't supposed to be a person; he was supposed to be a monster, and sick monsters didn't shop for fucking carrots.

She marched up to him and with no fanfare asked, "Why do you want to help me?"

Hidan jolted, cursed and turned towards her with a sneer. It was the meanest look she'd seen on him, and she had to bite the temptation to step back. Yet the expression slipped from his face when he noticed it was her. "Fuck, Sakura, do ya want me to have a heart attack?"

Sakura flattened her lips and propped her arms on her sides. "Answer the question." It was kind of funny that he had let down his guard so much as not to feel her approaching. She didn't think he was even possible to scare. Showed what she knew.

He ran a hand through his messy hair and continued with his shopping. He looked out of sorts, like she'd caught him on a day off or something – his hair wasn't slicked back like usual and he was wearing some dark sweats and a hoodie. She followed him to the dairy section. In his basket he was already carrying some potatoes, rice and the aforementioned carrots.

"There isn't a particular reason."

She pursed her lips. "Really?"

"Well… I'm bored and you're kind of hot, so there's that." He shrugged and picked out a carton of milk.

Sakura snorted, she couldn't deny that she found him kind of attractive as well, though that was thwarted by the whole murder thing. "How nice." The freezer caught her eye, and she peered into it suddenly in the mood for an ice cream.

"So…" Hidan stepped beside her, also observing the selection of frozen goods.

"What?" A new flavour of cookie dough ice cream caught her eye, and she picked it out.

He picked out a plain cone of vanilla, and she tried hard not to stare at him with judgement. "Don't judge, vanilla's just as good as your fancy flavour."

Apparently she hadn't been as good at hiding her expression as she thought. "But seriously, vanilla?"

He lightly smacked her side with his basket, a smirk on his face. "Don't knock it till you try it, love."

"Hey!" She took a large step away from him, pouting. She was actually fucking pouting like a damn child.

Laughing, he moved away from the dairy section, and she was tempted to just leave, go home and enjoy her ice cream. For some reason she caught up with him.

"Any other questions?"

Sakura watched him scan the meats section for a while. "Uh..." Maybe she should just swallow her pride and accept Hidan's offer. He wasn't going to tell her anything otherwise. She had been at a standstill for way too long, and the information Hidan could provide could be the breakthrough she'd been looking for. She was afraid of what it might entail, though. Her life for the past few years had been nothing but a tense walk along a fine line, a line she might cross once she accepted the offer. "I want to try it."

He hummed, picking out a sausage and throwing it in his basket. "Try what?"

Was he shitting her right now? She flexed her fingers, wanting to punch him so badly. Even Naruto in his heyday didn't piss her off as much. Here she was risking everything for this and he was treating it like it was fucking nothing, mocking her. The nerve.

"Oh, you mean that. Sure, let's go."

Pausing in her steps, she balked. He continued his shopping like they were discussing a trip to the ramen stand. She caught up to him and hissed. "Not right now, you loon. We need a plan."

"Sure if you wanna be all fancy 'bout it."

He couldn't be serious. How he hadn't got caught yet was a fucking miracle. "Can you try to be serious about this?"

Hidan scoffed and walked into the self check out. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, I know what I'm doin'"

Refusing to make a scene in front of an audience she went to pay for her ice cream and while she waited for him to finish ringing up his items, she unwrapped her delicious treat. It was absolute heaven on her tongue and a pleasant distraction from her irritation.

She had to admit that there was a certain reassurance in that she won't be going into this alone, that for once she'll have someone watching her back, that for once there was someone who knew and approved her work. As she watched him bag his items Sakura smiled. So, so fucking bizarre that this whacko was going to be her partner in crime.

Sakura froze mid bite just as Hidan approached her. Was he her partner now? Did this make them some kind of murder duo? Jeez, it was too fucked up to even think about.

"Wanna come to my place? We can do all of that plannin' stuff you're so adamant about." His question sounded sincere, but after what he had revealed he thought about her, she was sceptical.

She sighed. "Yeah, sure." But maybe she was being too hard on him, maybe Ino was right and she was just too high-strung.

Hidan led her through the streets. They were quiet for most of the walk, the silence oddly comfortable. She avoided looking at him, watching the pavement under her feet instead and listening to the mindless noise of the city. A list of things to do when she got home passed through her mind along with her run-in with the blond man. Maybe she should ask Hidan about him. Though what will it prove? That there's more of them in the city?

Her musings got cut short when Hidan slightly bumped her with his shoulder.

"Hey, you alright?"

Momentarily stunned, she peered at him.

He was still finishing his cone of ice cream, an earnest expression on his face.

"Why do you care?"

Hidan shrugged. "Dunno, you just look like someone shot your dog."

She scrunched her nose. "I'm just thinking. What if there are more people like you out here? In Konoha?"

"You mean like us?"

Sakura bit her tongue. This wasn't the time for arguing, so instead she nodded.

"I wouldn't know, but it could be possible."

She balked, a heavy weight settling in her stomach. It never was a secret to her that she wasn't the only one killing people in Konoha. But seeing and hearing the confirmation that there were other people that might sniff her out made her anxious. First Hidan, then the blond guy. Who's next? The flower vendor? Was she really that transparent?

Her only reassurance was that she could see through them just as well as they could. She just needed to hone her senses a bit to catch them first.

He led her to a nondescript building where they took an elevator up to the seventh floor. Cautiously she scanned her surroundings, remembering all the exit ways just in case. Without any invitation into the apartment, Hidan left her to her own devices as he walked over to the kitchen area to put away his groceries.

Compared to her homey abode in the suburbs, his mid-city apartment was blank, clearly a temporary place. Only the basic furniture decorated the place with a few knick-knacks that probably came with the apartment. For a studio apartment it seemed cosy, coloured in warm and light tones. The view from the window had the best view of the Hokage Mountain. Sakura frowned. Being bad apparently paid very well for such a view in mid-city did not come cheap.

The planning was all ad-lib, and the meticulous part in her was silently screaming. Yet she kept her mouth shut, this was how he wanted it and if she wanted to get something from him, this was how she had to do it. One thing she was stern about though – the time and date. She had a schedule and friends to work around, and just randomly jumping into something would not work.

In the end they settled for a Friday night, a prime time for wandering people on the streets.

xxx

For the remainder of the week, her mind ran over every possibility that could happen while they went out on their trip. Her paranoia told her to run as far as she could while her curiosity was egging her on. She had gotten this far, right? So chickening out now would be foolish. The risks were worth it.

Ino and TenTen noticed her absent-mindedness during lunch one time and had berated her with questions ranging from her health to a secret lover. Honestly, Sakura didn't know if she should be thankful for having such caring friends or resent them for being nosey.

With everything in her secret personal life put on pause, she found herself having more free time and spending it with Ino. The blonde even managed to set up a friends dinner date for her with Naruto and Sasuke. That had been a crazy trip down the memory lane and a stark reminder that she missed her childhood friends and their dumb antics.

And she felt better. She saw an increase in her own energy levels. She was smiling a lot more, eating better and actually having fun. Ino was a miracle worker and the best friend she could ever ask for.

That Friday evening she had freed her schedule and set out back to Hidan's apartment. He hadn't specified why he wanted for her to come to his place before they went out, just that it was important. And she wasn't really in any position to argue and had to agree to his requests. Wearing all black had been one of them. She had scourged her wardrobe for something dark. The first thing she had found was an old t-shirt from Sasuke she got during college. There was no way she was wearing that ratty thing, so she settled for a black camisole with a cardigan in a similar shade, blue jeans, red vans and a black sun hat to hide her pink hair. She looked ridiculous.

Hidan met her at his door, ushering her in. The giddiness was visible in his gait, and Sakura had to frown. Her stomach was a huge ball of nerves like never before while he was practically skipping through his living area with a mischievous grin on his face. Like a kid in a damn candy store. It was ridiculous.

He also seemed to pull off the all black ensemble a lot better than her. The t-shirt, jacket and jeans combo actually looked good on him, and her jealousy monster was rearing its ugly head. So not fair.

Sakura crossed her arms, trying to find some comfort in herself as she watched Hidan rearrange some kind of containers and brushes on his coffee table. "So? What are we doing here?"

"Gettin' ready." From between the couch cushions, he pulled out a mirror.

Sakura shook her head and let her eyes wander across his apartment and out the window. The city was lit up in warm orange, various loud shouts and car honks reaching them from the opened window, and in the distance the Hokage Mountain stared back at her with its draught faces. It was like they were judging her and what she was about to do. She averted her eyes.

While she had observed the Mountain Hidan had already painted his face white and currently was doing black shapes around his eyes. The contours he had drawn looked almost skeletal.

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, do you have to be a total edgelord about this?" This was why he wanted for her to come to his apartment first. To do himself up like a clown. This was absolutely ridiculous.

He scoffed. "What? It's fun, especially when they see me. I'm like death coming to take their lives an' shit." Suddenly he grinned at her, extending a spare brush her way. "Wanna try it out?"

She eyed the offered tool with disdain and then his black and white smeared face. He was so sloppy about it. Frowning, she snatched the brush from his hand. "You're such a clown."

He stuck out his tongue at her.

Sakura flattened her lips. He was an actual child, and she was the fool that was entertaining the idea. It was the opposite of her usual inconspicuous, but it provided the opportunity of covering her face completely to make her unrecognizable. If it was stupid, but it worked, then it wasn't really all that stupid.

Grumbling, she picked out containers of white and black paint for herself. Unsure of where to really start, she watched Hidan work for a while and how he switched the brushes for smaller details. There was a certain artistry to it and she had to admit that he had some skills. At first glance the paint looked messy, but all over it made a certain picture of skull like features, the unsteady lines only adding to the effect.

Uncertain, she moved to the mirror near the front door. She placed the containers on the dresser under the mirror. With a shuddering sigh, she dipped the brush in the white paint and put it to her face. From her observation, the white was just the foundation. She could do that. Doing the black parts was what scared her. Does she copy Hidan or does she just smear it on her face and hope for the best?

He had all the finer brushes, so she was stuck with her fat one. She observed her pale face for a moment, swallowed and dipped her brush in the black paint. For a while she absent-mindedly painted her eyes, gradually making the circles larger. It felt very much like doing her regular make-up, except she was making herself to look like a racoon.

Gods, this was stupid. She looked stupid as shit. Why was she even doing this again?

Hidan suddenly plucked the brush from her hand. "You're being too careful with it." He angled her face upwards and with his brush set to work on her face.

She caught her breath. If it weren't for the vibrant lilac eyes she wouldn't know it was him.

His brow was furrowed as he leaned closer to paint over her eyebrows up to the sides of her forehead.

Sakura fought hard to keep her blush down and calm her suddenly racing heart. He was concentrating on drawing the lines and hadn't even realized how close he'd gotten to her. To regain some composure, she focused on his face, trying to draw out his features from beneath the paint. It wasn't working. Damn this idiot for still being good looking despite the gunk on his face.

He moved to paint her lips, angling her head further up and drawing smaller lines down her chin.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. Her hands were clammy, and she was sure that if it weren't for the white covering her face, she'd be all red. Why was he affecting her like that? She wasn't some dumb, blushing schoolgirl, yet he rendered her down to one. Maybe because, if she was honest with herself, she liked him and his easy attitude, how she could be herself around him. She didn't have to put up a front and while he sometimes pushed her buttons for the shits and giggles, he didn't judge her.

"There! Done. Take a look." He turned her to face the mirror.

Sakura gasped. The person staring back at her hardly looked like her, if it weren't for the pale pink hair she wouldn't recognize herself at all.

Hidan was grinning back at her in the mirror, the action looking a lot more sinister than usual courtesy of the paint.

Maybe he had a point with the death coming thing. "If I saw myself walking down the street, I'd shit my pants."

"Exactly! That's the point of this."

She laughed. His excitement was palpable, and it was infectious. She understood his feelings of finally sharing something of themselves with others. It had been the same for her when she'd told him all about her secret project. It was liberating.

But there was one problem. "How can we lure someone in when we look like we crawled out of a grave?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned closer to her, leisurely draping his arms down her front, essentially hugging her from behind. She watched the action in the mirror, freezing from his added warmth.

"We don't lure, we chase the fuckers down like the prey they are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My goal was to show how monstrous these two are by not humanizing them, but here I am, a total clown, writing feel good moments between these two that humanizes them. Though it makes for a good light hearted chapter before the real shit goes down. Yeah, you guys are gonna get the full course next chapter - all of that murdery and smutty goodness.
> 
> Anyway, a huge thank you to everyone who left me feedback, you guys are the best and my fucking life force. Seriously, shower writers with your love it'll pump them up better than viagra. Okay, that wasn't supposed to sound like a dick joke, but I'll roll with it lol


	4. Red Will Be Shed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to assume that if you got this far into the story (past Hidan's introductory scene of murder) then you're gonna be fine with the slayage in this chapter. Just a fair warning that Sakura isn't as PG as Hidan was, nothing too awful, but still I'm a bad tell on what is supposed to be scary or not. And yeah, there's filth too, it's pretty much most of the chapter because I have no self-control.
> 
> Also here's a little visual to help if you're curious what the paint they're wearing looks like https://rhearenee-magane.tumblr.com/post/632416590419394560/necrosis-chapter-4-archive-of-our-own

They stalked through the streets like two weirdos. How she knew? The few people that passed by them gave weird, slightly frightened looks and avoided their path like the plague. Being a freak that scared people with just looks was something she never wanted to do, though she had to admit that it had some empowering feeling. Her facial features were unrecognizable under the paint.

The late evening air was chilly, the slight breeze cooling it further. She had to borrow a jacket from Hidan to not freeze her fingers off, her cardigan too thin. Her wardrobe didn't work for the disguise Hidan was going for, and next to him she looked like a thrift store reject.

Their looks were too unique to do anything in the city, too many surveillance cameras and people. To avoid unnecessary suspicion, they chose a district closer to the woods. Sakura knew one club in the area students and other club goers heavily visited. It was relatively close to the woods, where some patrons often wandered into for a smoke break or to take a piss.

The sky overhead was dark, threatening a rainstorm later. She huddled deeper in the oversized, black jacket, hands deep in the pockets. Her trusty sedative syringe was her rock, keeping her nerves from fraying. She periodically checked if it was still in her pocket.

They walked side by side in a brisk pace. A random jerkwad called out to them from across the street how it was too early for Halloween, and Sakura sneered. Hidan seemed to take the insult in stride, grinning like he'd won the lottery. Sometimes she couldn't understand him at all, the longer she stayed in his company the more she got the impression that he might be just a nutjob. Which spoke volumes about her current sense of self-preservation. Hidan was a terrible influence.

Her doubts were silently eating her up. The novelty of the stares had worn off, and she got the sense of being a faker, someone she's not. And while the paint did disguise them, it was too memorable. What if someone caught on to what they were going to do? What if…

_Stop it, Sakura._

There always had been danger in what she was doing, always had been a possibility of getting caught. It hadn't stopped her then, it shouldn't stop her now. Almost on autopilot, she looped her arm through Hidan's. He said nothing, only briefly glanced at her. The closeness calmed her. The feel of his warmth reminded her she wasn't alone. That's right, she wasn't going through this alone this time.

Once they reached the small thicket of woods, they split up and waited not too far from each other. Her nerves were back, and she twirled the knife Hidan had given her in her hands. She'd never killed anyone on the spot. She usually sedated and then dragged the victim back to her lab where she conducted her experiments. Generally she preferred if her victims were alive, it helped in creating new theories and testing them, but sometimes she had to deal with dead ones too. The awareness of her subjects wasn't important to her, just the reaction of their bodies.

This was different, this was personal.

The loud music from the club boomed in a dimmed, pulsing beat. Voices constantly passed, none ever came close enough to their hiding spots.

Hidan had given her the choice of choosing a victim. She swallowed. While she sometimes picked off drunkards, students and club goers were different. Most of them came outside in groups, chatting and smoking, none of them veering off.

After nearly two hours, finally someone was alone. The student was leisurely taking a drag from his cigarette.

Sakura nodded to Hidan in affirmative – this was the guy they'll take. Hidan was going to be the initial scare to direct him deeper into the woods. She rubbed her icy hands, trying to regain some warmth to them. The cold and damp air had settled deep into her clothes.

Their victim was unsuspecting, checking his phone as he took periodical drags from his cigarette.

Hidan was creeping through the woods, circling the kid. She waited with bated breath, following his shadowed form. In a snap, Hidan jumped in front of the kid, startling him and making him drop his phone and cigarette. Brief mumbled words were exchanged before Hidan brandished his butterfly knife. A moment of hesitation. The student ran the opposite way, right into the woods where she was waiting.

Perfect.

She exhaled and pulled out her own knife. Her limbs were frozen from the long wait and she was shivering either from the anticipation or cold, she didn't know. She intercepted the guy, a carefully placed smile on her face.

The student's face was pure horror, a look she hadn't seen before. He ran to the side, nearly tripping over himself.

Sakura gave chase. Her heart beat like a drum in her chest. This was it. She was chasing someone down with a knife. It was... exhilarating.

He threw a backwards glance, visibly shaking when he saw her.

She picked up speed, tree branches cracking under her feet. When she was younger, she took a lot of boxing classes and after all these years it surprised her how quickly all the breathing techniques came back to her. The woodsy area wasn't large, a well-travelled road was on the other side. She had to catch this guy before he reached it. Despite her training, she wasn't a runner, and the fear was making the student run faster, ignoring any kind of obstacle.

On impulse, Sakura threw her knife. Her aim was true, and the knife lodged between the guy's shoulder blades, making him trip with a strained shout. Panting, Sakura rushed to catch up.

Despite the knife lodged in his back, the student was scrambling to get back up, frantically mumbling nonsense.

Wow. She had no idea that they could be so pathetic looking when they got chased. It was just sad. She stepped on the fretting student, pressing him into the ground.

He was begging with garbled words.

Sakura pulled out her knife, and he screamed. "Tsk, why you gotta be so loud?" She hated excessive noise, it always disturbed her concentration. It gave her an idea. What if she tried some of her experiments on an aware subject? Patients with some certain injuries when brought in were aware and healing a squirming, moaning patient was a lot different from one under anaesthesia.

She turned the student around and stood over him. Tears were streaming down his face, but at this moment it didn't interest her. She crouched, and he flinched, trying to hit her with fists. She stabbed him in the shoulder and he cried out. "Stay still, please."

"Havin' fun, love." Hidan suddenly popped up from behind her.

She spared a glance his way and extended her hand. "Knife."

He chuckled, but still gave over his knife to her.

Sakura pinned the guy's other flailing hand to the ground with her knee and started by cutting away his shirt. She wasn't used to doing it with a knife and accidentally nicked him a couple of times. Oh well. "Now, this might hurt a bit." Carefully she made the first cut right over a pectoral. The knife wasn't a good enough tool to cut bone, so she must stick to some simple flaying methods to do her cutting of the muscle instead.

Hidan crouched beside her and wordlessly took the strain of holding back the student's arm from her.

The whimpering and crying was background noise by this point. To test her healing technique on infections (something she'd been eager to try out again) she would need more time with the subject, something she sadly did not have. She had to work quickly. Still, she kept a steady hand and made multiple cuts to remove the skin, cutting deeply into the muscle afterwards. She had very little clue what her goal here was apart from just cutting. The short time frame eliminated all of her usual options.

The student was screaming quite a lot, and she was tempted to slit his throat if just to get him to shut up.

"Please, keep your noise levels to a minimum. I need to concentrate." She lifted a skin flap from his collarbone, exposing the bone, and threw the cut off flesh haphazardly into the woods.

Hidan laughed shortly. "You better hurry and finish, we don't have a lotta time."

Sakura grimaced, that's what she was afraid of. She went through the few hand seals necessary for her technique and set to heal the deep gash on his chest. It was seeping blood rapidly and if left untreated he'd bleed out in seconds. It was a very basic technique and injury and she healed it up in few seconds. Still, it was faster than the healing techniques they used at the hospital.

"That seems kinda counter productive."

Sakura flattened her lips. "Like I said, I do this for science." Though the excuse by now had worn thin and she wasn't sure if it was true herself.

"Yeah, okay."

His offhanded placating tone irked her. Whatever she wanted to say got cut off when shouts, a name, came from the direction of the club. Crap. They were out of time, the student's friends were looking for him. There was so much more she could do, like maybe try to do a facial reconstruction or...

"We really gotta go." Hidan ripped the knife from the student's shoulder and handed it to her. "Finish this."

She eyed it for a moment. Well... maybe she can still make this interesting. She took the knife and in a swift move stabbed the student in the eye, not going deep enough to kill him. He screamed, and she pulled out the knife, this time aiming it for his mouth. She put a bit more strength in it this time and easily broke teeth and stabbed deep enough to damage the throat. Taking the other knife in her hand, she stabbed him in the neck. That successfully eliminated the screaming, leaving the student desperately gurgling for a breath.

Hidan retrieved the knife stuck in the eye-socket and cleaned it on the student's clothes. Sakura did the same.

They immediately set out in a run, right out of the woods where the road was, not sparing a single glance back to the dying kid.

She was actually laughing. A pure joyous laugh, as if she'd just gotten off a carnival ride. She had killed without a purpose; she had just taken a life for the heck of it. And it felt... powerful. It was she who decided the fate of that guy. Was this the reason serial killers existed? Because each time was like a rush of heroin?

They ran for some while, Sakura wasn't even following where, her mind and body buzzing from the high. At a darker street with little traffic, they finally stopped.

Sakura was panting. She broke out in uncontrollable giggles soon after, cradling her face. This was just… This was crazy, this was madness. Why hadn't she done it like this before?

When she composed herself Hidan had been looking at her with this almost gleeful expression. It was hard to tell because of the paint.

She cleared her throat. "This was fun, but next time we're doing this my way." The lack of time had forced her to be creative, though she'd much prefer to take her time next time.

Hidan didn't say anything, just observed her face.

Sakura grinned, unsure. The realization that she'd just admitted to him he had been right about her fell over her like cold water. She wanted to do this again, and she wanted to do it with him.

Without warning, he crossed the distance between them in a few quick strides and with his free hand he took her face and kissed her. Her stomach did a flip. It was almost bruising, the way he pressed his lips against hers, but when she placed her hands on his chest, he relaxed and the kiss naturally deepened. She tasted blood and wondered how it got there.

When she pulled back, there was obvious heat in his lidded eyes. Unexpectedly, she shivered pleasantly. She bit her lip in uncertainty and his eyes were drawn to the action. Her mind wasn't able to make rational thoughts, anyway.

He kissed her again, pressing her against a lamppost.

She fisted her hands in his jacket and tangled her tongue with his.

This time he pulled away first. "Wanna continue this?"

Breathless, she replied, "Yes."

With a positively devious smile, he took her hand and lead her down the street.

Her heart was stuttering in her chest like a hummingbird. This was the most careless she ever had been. And it gave her such a high. The possibility of getting caught, the adrenaline. Not to mention the crazy paint and the expressions he had made. Now she understood why Hidan liked to be flashy like this. She didn't even mind the few side-glances they earned from a few pedestrians.

She was positively on fire, buzzing from excitement. Oh gods, she needed to do this again. She stopped.

Hidan peered at her in curiosity.

Sakura grinned, stepped closer to him, and kissed him. She didn't care one bit that they had made an absolute mess of the paint on the faces or that they were making a scene.

He easily slipped his hands around her waist. Whenever she could, she sucked on his lip, revelling in how the action got the cutest of noises from him. One hand around her waist slipped under her shirt and gripped her almost bruisingly, pressing her closer, hand warm despite the weather. It came to her as no surprise that he was a bit harsh. What surprised her was how much she liked it.

He lightly bit her, and she moaned, moving her hands into his hair, purposely messing up his neatly slicked back hair. He smiled into it and pulled back for a moment to observe her face.

She beamed at the mess that was the paint on his face, all smeared into dull grey tones. Her smile turned devious when she pulled on his hair, exposing his neck. She latched on to the exposed skin, softly biting him. He definitely liked it. He shuddered and leaned more into her.

"Sakura." His tone was warning. "Unless you want to do this in the middle of the street, we better move on."

Pulling back she pouted, yet it was short lasting and easily morphed into a satisfied grin. His eyes were clouded with lust and he was obviously aroused. She could feel as much. She wanted to push his buttons more and slid her hand down his body.

He didn't stop her, just watched her as if in a trance.

She rested her fingers on his belt buckle. "Where do you propose we go?" she whispered, leaning closer as if searching for a kiss.

Hidan closed his eyes for a moment and removed her hand.

She was so aroused that she seriously could not give a single fuck where they were or that they had drawn some stares. The paint was dangerous; it made her forget all of her senses and caution.

He closed the small distance between them, kissing her softly and slowly. After the rough handling before the sudden softness shocked her. "Fuck if I know."

Sakura giggled and fully pulled back. "Come." She pulled on his hand and he complied, easily lacing their fingers. She'd forgotten the way back to his apartment, so back to her house it was. It was a bit of a trek, but with the rushed pace they were going in, it won't take longer than ten minutes to reach.

She couldn't remember the last time she was this giddy. Especially considering that she had just killed someone in cold blood. Even a potential breakthrough in an experiment didn't get her this amped up. The pulsing arousal had more to do with Hidan than the murder honestly, but it still lightly surprised her. Usually she'd look down on something like this. She didn't kill for the fun of it and she definitely did not sleep with strange men, especially men that were killers.

Yet she couldn't muster up the will to care. All she cared about was getting his hands on her body again, feeling him close to her, tasting him. She was potentially just as fucked up as him, and she saw nothing wrong with that.

Just as they reached her house, she had to stop to dig for her keys in her pockets. Hidan took her distraction as a chance to wrap his hands around her and kiss her nape. She moaned loudly. "You're...you're distracting me." She felt his breath on her skin and the brief laugh he gave.

"Then you'll just have to concentrate harder." One of his hands cupped her breast, and she leaned back into him just as her fingers brushed against her keys in the pocket of her jacket. With a victorious shout, she pulled them out.

She squirmed in his hold. "Hidan, please, I gotta unlock the door."

He sighed and reluctantly let her go.

Finally free, her next challenge was trying to fit the key into the lock with how much her hands were shaking.

"Havin' difficulties there, love?" He was hovering behind her.

Sakura was about to snap at him for distracting her again when she finally got the key fit. "Aha!" With a smug look, she turned to him. "I'm perfectly capable and I wasn't struggling." She poked his chest with a finger.

Hidan laughed and used her hand to pull her closer to him. She managed a short squeak before he pressed his lips against hers again. She melted into him and his warmth. When his other hand wandered, she pulled back.

"Okay, we really gotta go inside before my neighbours notice us."

A devious sparkle lit up in his eyes. "You scared?"

Sakura deadpanned. "Yes, of their judgey stares and gossip."

He chuckled. "You're a weird one, Sakura."

She lightly smacked him. "You're one to speak, Mr 'I'm painting my face to look like a skeleton'."

"Fair point. Now c'mon, I still gotta fuck you proper." He pulled her towards the door, unlocking it and removing the key.

Her face warmed at his crass words. She was really doing this? With him? Then he turned around, waiting for her to take the lead, and she burst out laughing. He looked absolutely ridiculous with the paint all smeared up beyond recognition around his mouth area. She probably was no better. Her neighbours are definitely going to have a field day with this. "We look ridiculous." She explained, leading him inside the dark house.

"Nothin' a simple shower can't fix." He was removing his boots and jacket and her mind fell into the gutter. He had under a simple open button-down and a t-shirt, but damn watching him move did things to her, especially when it was obvious that he still was aroused.

She busied herself by removing her own shoes when he quite shamelessly adjusted himself.

It rained cats and dogs outside, the loud rainfall filling the silence.

"So...How you wanna do this?"

Confused by the question, she looked up.

He was standing on the edge of her living room, arms crossed a bit stiffly, face shrouded in darkness. The dim light from the window outlined him.

Biting her lip, she approached. "You nervous?" She lightly touched him with her fingertips.

"Of you bailing? Yeah."

She paused. "Why would I bail?"

He shrugged, looking away. "You've had plenty of time to second guess everything." His voice was low and quiet, his accent softening.

Well, she'd be lying if she said she hadn't thought this over a bit, though her own horniness kind of dimmed everything that happened before. Instead of answering him, she brought her hand around the back of his neck and brought him down for a kiss. He relaxed and put his arms on her waist. She pulled away a bit. "First follow up on your promise, then I'll think about bailing."

Hidan smiled and chuckled. "Playin' with my feelings like this."

Sakura smirked, lightly running her fingertips over his chest in random patterns. "I'm just following your lead, darling." She won't pass up on the chance to give him some grief after he did the same to her for weeks. Her hand trailed down to the front of his jeans. She stroked him, watching as his expression changed.

Suddenly he pinned her against the door-frame to her living room and left soft bites across the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Her hands fisted in his shirt. He moved to work her out of her camisole and she allowed him, raising her arms. Both of his hands kneaded her clothed breasts while he continued his ministrations on her neck.

Sakura moaned, arching into him. There were too many layers between them and that needed to be fixed. She worked the button-down off his shoulders, immediately reaching for his shirt next. He smiled against her skin, yet still allowed her to undress him. Shirt off, she reached for him again, sealing her mouth over his.

Both of them were frantic and she might have accidentally bitten him, earning her a moan. She moved away from the door-frame, pulling him along. The heat in his eyes made her tingly all over, and her arousal reignited with a new fervour. She pulled him by his hand up the stairs, mind fuzzy and electricity running up her hand from where they were touching.

Once in her dim bedroom she shimmied out of her jeans, Hidan doing the same. He was upon her as soon as she pulled out her leg from her jeans, kissing her as he tried to unclasp her bra.

With her bra off, he steadily pushed her backwards until the back of her legs hit her bed. She nearly toppled over and hugged closer to him. The skin on skin contact was electrifying, and he was like a furnace against her.

He slowly laid her down, moving his mouth down her body with her descent. Sakura sighed when he enveloped her nipple in his mouth, biting and sucking softly. She sunk her fingers in his mussed hair.

"Wait, wait!" She gently pushed him off. "I need to check you."

"What?" He was hovering over her, head tilted to the side, and she used that chance to run her hands down his abdomen and run diagnostic chakra through him. He shuddered. "Sakura?"

"Gotta check if you're clean or not."

He shook his head with a smile. "You coulda just asked."

She hummed, drawing her brows. "I want to make sure myself." There was definitely something different about him. Maybe that supposed immortality.

Hidan shifted on his side, and she had to shift with him. "I'm immortal, love. I don't catch diseases."

Hmm.. he was right about that. She had never seen someone that healthy. There was nothing that she could find that might be wrong, at least on a surface level. She moved to straddle him, hands on his chest. Hidan was looking at her with a dopey smile while she scanned him with a furrowed brow. She lacked the concentration to properly scan him but... "You're sterile?"

He ran his hands up her sides, concentrating more on her tits than her face. "Comes with the immortal package."

Why did he suddenly become like so much hotter? His heated gaze felt like fire and if she didn't have him inside her like right now she was going to explode from need. She moved off him to remove her last piece of underwear as he shimmied higher up the bed, eyes glued to her body.

She grinned. He made such a silly picture, laying in her pastel bedsheets with that half smeared scary paint on him and random smears of grey around his neck where she'd kissed him. Shrouded in harsh pink shadows from her lava lamp.

Sakura crawled on the bed, never breaking eye contact. He crossed his arms behind his head, a satisfied grin on his face. She moved over him, only stopping briefly to finally look at him properly and take him in her hand and give a few slow strokes. A devious smile slipped past her lips when his smile faltered for a moment. With her thumb, she smeared the pre-cum around the head of his cock and watched in glee as his expression changed. With no warning, she took him in her mouth, and he groaned and cursed. His hand weaved into her hair as she worked him, twirling her tongue around the head.

"Sakura..." he trailed off and yanked on her hair, pulling her off.

She continued her crawl until she reached him, kissing him on the lips slowly.

He was the first to pull away. "You really are on the road of trying to kill me."

Sakura laughed shortly. "I like to do things slow and precise, so don't worry, honey, you'll live for a while." She patted his cheek affectionately while trying to stifle her giggles.

A half smile passed his lips, and he placed his hands on the back of her thighs, squeezing and then pushing. She lost her balance and toppled on top of him with a squeak. And the bastard was laughing about it. It kind of hurt. She nearly hit her nose against the headboard. If she hadn't been throbbing with unfulfilled need that would have been a mood killer. "That wasn't funny." She tried to right herself, but paused for a second when she felt him nuzzle her tit.

When she pulled back a shit-eating grin covered his lips. "Dunno I kind of liked the outcome."

Instead of giving him the satisfaction of replying, she shimmied lower, dragging her fingers over his skin in a light touch. She'll never get enough of the shivers he got from her doing that.

His hands hadn't left her thighs. The smug grin dropped as soon as she took his dick in her hand and positioned herself over it. She was so wet by this point that it was an easy glide down. They both groaned and his grip on her thighs increased.

Her movements were slow at first, trying to find her rhythm, but Hidan was urging her on with his hands. Her eyes fell closed, and she focused on the building pleasure. Ino had been right. It had been too long since she last had any kind of intimacy. She'd nearly forgotten the feeling of being filled, of being stretched deliciously so and oh… She moaned when she finally found the right angle and dragged one of her hands to work on her clit.

Hidan cursed profusely when she squeezed, feeling her own mounting orgasm coming on.

Suddenly her bliss was interrupted when she received a light slap on her cheek and then a hand wound around her throat. He had another shit-eating grin on his face, fingers slowly applying pressure on her neck.

Sakura mock glared, slapped him back, and knocked his hand away. She slowed her pace, took his wrists and pinned them to the headboard. The change in position changed the angle, and suddenly he was hitting different spots that nearly made her see stars. She was so close.

Hidan sprouted unintelligible curses under her, moving along with her. She rocked her hips. His hands were balled and when she peered down at him, his eyes were closed, head thrown back. "Hidan?" Sakura slowed her pace. "Look at me."

That caught his attention. The desire in his hooded eyes, the appreciation of her made her heart swell. She let go of his hands and leaned down to capture his lips in a searing kiss.

He responded in earnest, pulling her closer.

Untangling herself, she resumed her pace and this time he had a hand on her clit, rubbing her with his fingers. It was enough to set her over the edge, and she came with a high moan, her back arching as she slowly rode off her orgasm.

Hidan cursed under her, his grip on her hip becoming almost bruising.

She batted his hand away from her sensitive cilt and instead took the fingers in her mouth, sucking on them as she kept direct eye contact. Keeping a slow pace, she felt her second orgasm grow. A smile stretched over her lips. "Come for me."

He groaned. "Bloody hell, Sakura." Hidan helped her move faster, and she placed his hand on her breast. He came with a loud groan and squeezed her breast that put her over the edge as well.

Both of them were panting as she slowly rode it out. Sweat ran down her back and her hair stuck awkwardly to her damp face. Hidan wasn't fairing any better, and she absolutely loved the bed hair look on him, especially when it had been her that had ruined his neat hairstyle.

Delicately she got off him, making sure not to drip their spendings all over her sheets, and fell on the bed beside him.

It had gotten completely dark outside; the rain pattered against the window. She stared at the ceiling, watching the lava lamp thrown shadows move, the day's events sinking in.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever let someone fuck me like that." He sounded breathless.

Sakura chuckled lowly and turned on her side to hug his arm to her chest. "Don't worry, I'll let you upkeep your promise of fucking me next time."

He turned his head her way, a tired smile on his lips. "Promise?"

"Yup."

Hidan turned on his side to fully face her and with one hand angled her face to kiss her gently. When he pulled back, "That shower would be nice right about now."

"Yeah." She was sticky all over and the paint on her face no doubt was all muddy if Hidan was any indication. A ball of unease settled in her stomach. She just had sex with a murderer and she had enjoyed it, moments before she had killed someone herself with no scientific reason. And she didn't know how to feel about that.

Despite all reason she had grown to like Hidan, even with all the rush worn off, she still wanted to touch him, to know more about him. She probably shouldn't. He was annoying, talked way too much sometimes, and coerced her into committing a crime. Yet she couldn't fault him for that. She got the same when she was passionate about something and despite the coercion she had her own curiosities she had wanted to stave.

There still was one goal she wanted to reach. She sat up. "Okay, shower first, then you're telling me all about Jashin and that immortality of yours."

He rolled on his back, arms spread. "Sure, love"

"And I'd also like to scan you. Properly this time."

Hidan leered at her still naked form. "I'm not opposed to your hands on me."

She shook her head with a smile and dragged herself out of bed.

xxx

As it was, showering with Hidan had been a challenge. While she didn't get to do all of her shower regime, at least she washed her face and hair from the gunk. Hidan had been less worried about that and had been more focused on touching her and might have even fingered her to orgasm. It surprised her he found the time to wash the gunk off himself at all.

He was dead-set on continuing the sexcapades once they got back to her bedroom, but Sakura had put her foot down. She'd dressed herself in her pyjamas and stubbornly sat in the armchair in her room, lips pursed as she waited. He would not distract her from her goal.

Hidan hadn't bothered to dress like her and had stayed in her bed under her sheets. "Fine, fine. I'll tell you."

He apparently wasn't very opposed to talking about his cult like religion and sprung into a passionate tale about it. She had to even redirect him to stay focused on the parts that mattered to her. He'd scoffed at her and told her that everything mattered.

What she had gathered from his lengthy tale was that he'd gotten his immortality after he'd made enough sacrifices through lots and lots of experimentation. Weird to think they had something in common.

Sakura moved off the chair to the edge of the bed. "What are the limits of your healing?"

"Well, I stab myself in the heart pretty much every time I do a sacrifice. Oh, then there was the time I got my hand cut off. A good mate of mine knew some medicine and stitched me up after a few days." He showed his wrist where there was a pale scar.

She crawled closer and took his hand in hers to observe. Interesting.

"Healed up fast, not as fast as normal, but works fine."

So cutting off body parts left scars while simple cutting or stabbing didn't scar. She quickly scanned the hand for any traces of surgery, but found practically none. Amazing. The cut seemed to be jagged. Attaching limbs with unclean cuts like that was a challenge. And to see that it had been done days later with such astounding results…

"I also seem to age slower than normal."

She raised her eyebrows.

"You'd figure that immortal means that I stay the same, but..." He shrugged.

Coyly, she asked. "So, how old are you?"

"I think thirty-two." He seemed to do mental maths for a moment. "Yeah, turned thirty-two in April. I was twenty-two when I first got accepted and Jashin gave his gift on me. I've stopped followin' my birthday after that."

Sakura blinked, he really didn't look like he was around thirty years old, then again people could look younger than they actually were.

"Yeah, so..." He let the sentence fall.

She thought for a moment, eyes still locked onto the faint scar on his arm. She slowly met his eyes. "How do you join?"

A satisfied grin slipped across his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love how at the smut part in my notes most of what I had put down was just that Sakura fucks lololol Y'know the smut was supposed to be this heat of the moment thing, but then these two decided to be such adults and respect each other so much that I just had to go with it. Also I'm starting to think that my Hidan has abandonment issues, he just keeps bringing it up out of nowhere. The same thing happened in Bad Reputation.
> 
> Next chapter is the last and shit will finally go down.
> 
> Anyway, thanks to all the lovely people that left me feedback. You guys are the best. Seriously.


	5. Oh Noes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry if there are any mistakes or stuff feels rushed, it's just that I have been sitting on this for so long that I'm getting to the point where I hate looking at it and can't edit a second time without it feeling like a burden. I'll come back to it later (as I've done for the previous chapters) and fix up whatever needs to be fixed up. But for now I think it's been long enough since you guys have waited for a chapter.

Hidan told her all about the ritual to join, the risks and about his own journey to getting accepted by Jashin. The things he had done to get where he was now. It was a bit terrifying. Yet she was ready to follow through all of it to receive the gift of Jashin herself. Scanning Hidan was one thing, being able to experience it was another. Maybe then she'll understand the mechanics of his immortality better and will be able to replicate the details. After all, the best subject was always one's self.

Jashinism revolved around sacrifices, though. It was the one huge drawback she saw. But back when she started her little hobby, she knew that she would have to make sacrifices. And she was completely fine with that. It was too late to back out now only because of such one detail.

The reason she hadn't found much online about Jashinism was because it was a dead religion and Hidan himself had dug it up from a dusty ancient temple, experimenting around with the techniques left there in hopes for something.

Few lived past the initial ritual simply by not being worthy. To be worthy, one needed to have blood on their hands. There were no rules of how much, just that it was necessary. Hidan himself had slaughtered all of his neighbours just to meet the first rule. A lot of trial and error had gone into it until he had deciphered the old scrolls correctly.

"I was afraid to do it at first too." he'd told her. "But Jashin doesn't accept such doubts. You need to think of death as something calming, something that'll set you free. It helped to be less afraid."

She was very doubtful. Even if she met the first rule by simply doing her experiments, she didn't quite meet the second one of doing it all for bloodshed and despair.

"Jashin is cruel, but he rewards his followers well."

The rewards were enticing, indeed.

The second rule was to never have doubts in Jashin. Her killing the closest person to her proved her devotion in Jashin and killing herself proved her trust in him. After all that, if Jashin accepted her, she'd be forever stipulated to bringing blood to Jashin lest she wanted to lose the gift and die.

"You'll have to do the long and painful rituals for a while. It's a rite of passage to weed out the fanatics that were only after the immortality. After that the pain will subside, Jashin will replace it with pleasure and killing in your preferred way will work too."

That was less appealing and more of a hassle, but she understood.

"I have faith in you, Sakura."

Ultimately, that was the key—faith.

For years her life had been a crazy roller coaster of risks, but all of them had been calculated, based on facts. Here she had to trust an ethereal entity to grant her what she wanted. It was out of her control and it terrified her. Ever since Hidan had come into her life that seemed to be the norm and the implication of giving away her last thread of control over her life was absolutely mortifying. Was this going to be worth it? Is she ready to sacrifice her life for her mission? The key to the immortality might not even be what she needed. But that was the risk, wasn't it? The risk of any experiment she did that it all might be a waste of her time. It never had come with a threat to her life, though.

Hidan was the only successful example that had lived for years. No one else who had tried had passed or if they did, they couldn't handle the rituals. One had to be completely off their rocker to survive this. She both respected and ridiculed Hidan. After all, to go through all of that for years, they truly had to be missing a few screws.

She wasn't sure if she was crazy enough just yet. In the past few months she'd known Hidan she had pushed her boundaries and discovered new experiences, new ideas. It was a lot of novel things. It was a lot to take in.

It took her some time to compose herself, come down to a decision. The initial sacrifice was something that she didn't want to do. She didn't have a lot of people close to her. Her parents weren't in the picture, she lost most of her friends when she made the shift in her life and the current friends she had weren't that close to her. Except for one.

Ino had been a constant presence in her life for years. Her relationship with Ino suffered a bit since she took up her darker side job, but the closeness never disappeared. To do the ritual successfully, she'll have to kill Ino.

With their plans laid out, Sakura accepted Ino's always there invitation for a double date. Ino had been ecstatic and endlessly questioned her about where she'd gotten a boyfriend, how did they meet, and so on. She spent most of her evening chattering on the phone with the blonde lying through her teeth. Sakura didn't have concrete answers to most of her questions, mostly because she didn't know the answers herself. She wasn't sure what she would label her relationship with Hidan as they never discussed it. But for the sake of getting Ino on the same page she went along with Ino's assumptions with Hidan as the said boyfriend.

After their first night out killing and then sex at her house, Hidan visited her more often. She even once got him to find a subject for her, since she was constantly too busy with her friends and job. With a syringe of her sedative and instructions how to administer it, but of course he didn't listen to her and boinked the victim over the head with a fucking log of all things. Seriously, his recklessness was something to be fixed and improved on. Her subject was needlessly injured and suffered from a mild concussion. But beggars couldn't be choosers.

Hidan had even been curious enough to assist her in her experiments, and he surprised her by actually being a great help. It was almost like having an assistant in the OR. While his chakra wasn't as stable as hers, having extra hands paid off immensely. The only drawback was that he talked. All. The. Fucking. Time. She preferred silence or mild classical music as background noise while she worked. Threatening to use her surgical instruments on him didn't phase him at all, in fact it seemed like he just got more excited by the prospect and kissing him to shut him up for a moment only made him get more handsy.

Honestly, if he wasn't such a help, she would have locked him out of her lab in the first ten minutes. Eventually she did find entertainment in his tales and she started adding her own opinions in to his rambling. Sometimes she found that she'd stopped working altogether and had lost time by talking with him about something random. He held some interesting opinions and information, and sometimes her curiosity got the best of her and she had to seek clarification.

It was different from how it was with Ino. While she sometimes discussed the same life topics with her as well, usually conversations revolved around gossip, relationships be it either romantic or not. Still, she found her and Hidan's relationship interesting. She had never discussed it with him, what they were or what he wanted from her, but it worked. And she couldn't lie that his more reckless and easy going attitude offset her more uptight and by the schedule nature in a way that pushed her to be more easy on herself and stop and smell the roses if just for a few seconds.

In return, she was sure that some of her habits had rubbed off on him. He planned more, even if it was what he was going to have for dinner, and she noticed him being just a bit more cautious about where he does his rituals. It warmed her heart to know that by just being herself she had improved some of his worse off qualities.

She knew what her type in men was and Hidan was far from it, so it surprised her she liked him and kind of enjoyed his company, even if he did make her question her sanity at points.

xxx

This time Sakura chose a spot where they would spend their date night. Knowing Ino, she'd pick something ridiculous again, and she'd have to spend a lot of money. Her spending habits were a bit more stingy compared to Ino, despite their similar salaries. A bowling alley seemed like a reasonable compromise.

She met up with Hidan beforehand to go over their plan for the night again, and just so they could arrive together. The plan was simple enough, Hidan will distract Ino's boyfriend while she took her somewhere secluded and did the ritual. She'd memorized all the words and such.

Sakura had stuck to her recent theme for dates and dressed more or less casually. When Hidan had seen her over-sized t-shirt, he had snorted. In all fairness, it was a ridiculous shirt she'd gotten from Naruto back in college days that read "I shaved my balls for this". She paired that off with a simple red skater skirt and some vans. Yeah, maybe it wasn't appropriate for what was supposed to be a date and Hidan was a bad influence on her, but hey she got a laugh from him.

Hidan hadn't even bothered to dress any differently from his usual get up of jeans and jacket.

Surprisingly enough, when they arrived at the bowling alley, Ino and her boyfriend were already there, waiting for them. She would recognize the huge mass of blonde hair anywhere. It was slightly chilly outside, and the two were standing close to each other, discussing something.

Sakura approached them with a smile, ready to hug Ino. She froze once she got close enough, and Ino moved to finally show the face of her boyfriend. Ino had a huge smile on her face and she was saying something. Her heartbeat was too loud, her eyes stuck to the blond man. It was the same guy, the one she'd tried to attack, the one that had snuffed her out almost immediately in return.

Ino hugged her, and she stiffly returned it, not taking her eyes off the blond man and his easy smile. The ground fell from under her feet completely when Hidan walked up to the guy and greeted him like an old friend, all smiles and handclasps. Was this some kind of a joke? Was she being filmed for a prank show? What the fuck was going on?

"I'm so glad we are finally able to do this." Ino pulled away with a smile, hands on her shoulders. "By the way, Sakura, this is my boyfriend Deidara. Deidara—Sakura."

Sakura stared at him, unable to hide her horror. Deidara for his part seemed amused. Hidan was confused and alternated between throwing glances at her and Deidara.

Ino turned from her to Deidara. "I see you reacquainted yourselves with each other."

"Sure did." The little smile on Deidara's face unsettled her. The visual similarities he had with Ino were even more unsettling. Both had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail, both had blue eyes and both had relatively soft features with a sharp nose and high cheekbones. Did she groom this guy or was it just a coincidence?

"Oh jeez, I'm so excited to finally do this." Ino easily slid in Deidara's arms just as he put a hand around her waist.

She met Hidan's eyes, and he shrugged, clearly just as confused as her. They were going to need to talk. She flattened her lips, trying to send the message visually over to him. In defeat, he just nodded back, and they followed the blonde duo inside the building.

This might change their original plan. Sakura watched Ino's back, the way her long skirt swished when she walked, the bounce in her ponytail and Deidara's secure arm around her waist. It unsettled her. Ino had been dating a possible murderer this whole time.

Hidan stayed by her side, hands in his pockets. "How are we going to do this?" he whispered.

Sakura clenched her teeth, refraining from shouting her frustration. "We'll figure it out. For now, stick to the original plan."

How had she never had the mind to ask Ino how her boyfriend actually looked or what his fucking name was? She'd been so immersed in her own life and her woes that she had never asked too much about others. Funny thing was that Ino talked about him all the time. She might have even mentioned him by name, and she'd just been too out of it to really register it. Biggest surprise was that Hidan knew him, and the bastard had said that he didn't know anything about there being another person like them in the city.

They split the cost of an hour of playtime between them, changed their shoes and entered their names in the system.

Deidara knew about her, and most probably about Hidan as well. Her mind boiled just thinking about the fact that Hidan might have been the one to spill the beans to the blond and then pretended later not to know anything. She hoped that he hadn't lied. He had been just as surprised to see Deidara here as her, but anyone could fake surprise.

With a bright smile, Ino started off the game, picking up a ball and walking near the line of their chosen lane.

Sakura bit down her animosity. It was best not to jump to conclusions prematurely. She needed a clear head for this. It was dim where she was sitting, all the light concentrated on the bowling lines. Soft music played in the background, and she concentrated on that, trying to calm her nerves.

Hidan was small talking with Deidara. From what she could gather, they were catching up. There was a certain snark to both their words, and it seemed like neither man was happy to see each other. Deidara though was amused and slipped off to go through his turn.

"I'm going to buy some drinks, you guys want anything?" Ino asked with a bright smile.

Sakura nodded. "Mojito."

"Same as her." Hidan didn't bother to even look at Ino, too busy glaring at Deidara's back.

Ino paid no attention to his odd behaviour, nodding in confirmation and walking off to the bar.

Deidara was too busy choosing the right weight ball for himself.

They were finally alone.

Sakura pulled Hidan down to sit on the cushioned corner bench. "How the hell do you know Deidara?" Admittedly her anger still seeped through.

Hidan pulled his arm from her vice like grip. "Ex co-workers. We used to be a part of the same organization."

"Did you know he was in the city?"

He shook his head. "No. We're not exactly the best of friends, though we have agreed not to try to kill each other."

The questions were just piling up in her mind. And she nearly kicked herself for not asking the most obvious one. "How do you know Ino? She said that she'd met you before she'd set us up on a date."

Hidan sighed, slumping deeper in the bench. "Well, yeah she did. It was my first time meetin' her, actually. She just randomly came up to me in a cafe and started talkin' bout how she knows one of my friends. It went on from there. She talked a lot."

"She does that."

"She showed me your picture and suggested that I should take you out for a date. I accepted."

Sakura balked. "Just like that?"

"Don't judge me and my methods. If someone brings me a sacrifice like that on a silver platter I 'ain't gonna question it."

She grimaced, eyeing Deidara briefly who had knocked his choice down to between a purple and an orange ball. "It just feels so sleazy. I can't believe Ino would do this."

"Well, s'pose you don't know your friend as good as you thought."

"I suppose so." More questions formed in her mind, but Ino returned with the drinks and snacks placing them on the small table before her and Deidara finally made his roll. She took a sip from her drink before she went to take her turn.

The game carried on like this - they took turns, chatting in between about menial everyday stuff. Ino was happy and probably purposefully blind to the tension that was between the rest of them.

During a break between games Ino snuggled closer to her, her drink in hand. Deidara had left for a smoke break and Hidan was setting up the next game. He had been insistent on changing the order they went to the lane, saying that he lost to Ino only because he was last on the list.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me." Ino took a chip from the chip basket, crunching it loudly.

Sakura chuckled nervously. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

Ino grinned. "But really, Forehead, I'm glad it worked out. You look better, got that sparkle in your eye and colour in your cheeks."

She smiled flatly. She was better, but she wasn't flustered over Hidan (maybe a little, watching him move made her mind wander) it was because of her plans and how she was so close to executing them. It was nerves through and through.

Ino sighed wistfully, eyes drifting to Deidara who was returning from his break.

"I see you're living out all of your teenage dreams." Sakura hid her smile behind her glass, taking a generous gulp from her mojito.

She laughed. "Yeah."

"Well, as long as you don't ask me to have a joint wedding." That had been one of their weird fantasies as well. They might have been twelve when they thought of that.

Ino laughed even lauder. "Oh gods, those were the times."

"Yeah."

Hidan returned, swiftly took the drink from her hand and took a sip. She didn't even get to protest before he returned the glass to her hand. "You go first, love."

She sighed and put down her empty glass just as Deidara joined Ino on the couch, taking her spot. "Yeah, sure." She chose her ball on the way.

Hidan followed her, staying real close. He leaned even closer, whispering in her ear. "You still want to go through with this?"

Sakura smiled sweetly and walked out of his space. "Yes."

"Alright."

"I still have a lot of things to ask, though." It was insane how many questions had been brought up and with that the realization that she barely knew Hidan at all. They'd been so busy with her experiments and Jashinism that she hadn't thought to ask him about his life beyond that at all. It hadn't even passed her mind that it might be relevant.

Ino won the game again with Hidan at a close second. Those two competed the whole game while she and Deidara watched from the sidelines with amusement. Surprisingly enough she got along with Deidara. He didn't bring up her little secret at all, instead while Hidan and Ino were bickering they talked about random stuff and how competitive their other halves were. She almost forgot who he was.

After Ino calmed down from her winning high, she suggested they close off the date with dinner. It was the perfect intervention to execute her plan.

On the way the blonde was too busy talking sweet nothings with Deidara to really pay attention to her. So she huddled next to Hidan. "About that co-workers thing. What kind of organization was it?"

Hidan was quiet for a while, it seemed like he would not answer at all. It was obvious he didn't enjoy talking about it, yet she needed to know. "It wasn't anythin' official, wasn't legal more like. We were labelled as terrorists."

Sakura stayed quiet, despite more questions bubbling up.

"Mostly did assassinations and some espionage missions. The Leader was a whacko with a God complex, the rest of us more or less hated each other. I got outta that fuckery as fast as I could."

She bit her lip, contemplating. Their history was a lot more complex than she thought. It explained why Deidara knew about her off the bat—he had worked amongst fucked up people like that. "Is Deidara going to be a problem?"

"I don't think so. He's here just to fuck with me, anyway."

She turned to him, eyes wide. "Why would you think that?"

"Revenge. We never exactly saw eye to eye."

Just at that moment Deidara looked back at them, a mischievous smile on his lips. She didn't like it. He didn't look like he was entirely stable. She couldn't figure out if he was onto them or he really was, as Hidan suggested, fucking with them for the shits and giggles.

"I don't know what he was trying to pull by sickin' his girlfriend on me."

"You think Deidara planned this?"

"Naw. He's too dumb for that, probably just saw me in the city and wanted to annoy me with his irritating girlfriend."

"That doesn't make any sense." She lightly smacked his shoulder. "And Ino isn't stupid. She's well meaning, supportive and an excellent friend."

He grinned. "Yet you still wanna kill her for a selfish cause."

"It's not- ugh." She cut herself off. "You're a terrible influence on me."

"The baddest." He kissed her temple. "You wanna wait after dinner or do this now?"

"Do you know how you're gonna get Deidara out of the way?"

"I can think up a couple of ways."

She cast a glance across their surroundings. They were in a fairly populated area. It was still early in the evening and people were perusing the streets despite the small drizzle of rain. It wasn't far off from the restaurant. She'll have to come up with something to get Ino's attention. Shit, shit. She'll have to act again.

Her hand rested on the butterfly knife in her jacket's pocket, the cool metal grounding her. "We do this now," she whispered and unlatched herself from his hold.

She pretended to be distressed while searching through her purse as she walked next to Ino. "Crap. I think I'm out of tampons."

That caught the other woman's attention, and she unlatched from Deidara briefly. "What?"

"I'm so sorry." She smiled sweetly to Deidara and turned to Ino with desperation in her eyes. "My period started, I think I'm leaking already and I don't have any tampons with me." She bet everything on Ino always being prepared, especially for an occasion that was as important to her as this.

"Oh god. Okay, lemme check." The blonde started rummaging through her purse.

She spared a glance towards Hidan, who was smiling with hands in his pockets, observing the scene with patient calm.

"Found one." And to prove it, she pulled it out. Before giving it to her, she scanned their surroundings. They were in a busy district, plenty of shops around. Her eyes landed on a coffee shop.

Ino turned to Deidara, who by all means looked a bit unsettled. "We'll be right back." She smiled at Sakura. "Let's go."

Sakura returned the smile. "Thank you so much, Pig. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Psh, you'd probably bleed all through that ratty-ass skirt."

She laughed good-naturedly. Before leaving, she shared a look with Hidan, who slightly nodded to her in response. Her heart thudded in her chest as Ino lead her across the street and into the coffee shop. Sakura didn't have to talk at all, Ino found the bathroom for them, which was blissfully empty.

"Your period has the worst timing ever, Forehead. I hope you're not getting cramps too."

Sakura smiled as she headed into a stall. "I'm fine, though I'm sorry that I had to ruin our date like this."

Ino sighed, rummaging through her purse noisily. "It's alright, you can't control your period. I'm just happy that you agreed to come at all."

She pretended to rummage with her pants and the tampon. "You have been pestering me about it for months, so..."

Ino sighed. "I know and I'm sorry. I saw how absent you were getting from us, avoiding all of our gatherings. The dates were just the first thing that seemed something different." Ino paused, the rattling of her purse stopping. "I want you to be happy, Sakura. You changed very drastically in the past few years. The you of three years ago would have been ecstatic about the date idea. I just want that Sakura back."

Sakura stilled. She didn't know if it was fear or guilt that clenched her heart. Of course she had changed, she took her life in a different direction. It wasn't like it had been a spur of the moment decision either. Ever since her last break up and the start of her career as a doctor, she decided to make a change in the world. She abandoned her past self and reinvented herself as a goal orientated woman with something to achieve. She didn't like who she had been in the past—someone led by emotion and frivolous things. "I'm still me. I just grew up."

She chuckled, clinking something loudly against the sink. "No kidding. You like skipped your twenties and thirties and jumped straight into forty-year-old busy mom phase."

"Hey!"

"Kidding, I'm kidding. I'm glad that you decided to be less…" the pause elongated and Sakura was afraid to hear what she was going to say. "Touchy? No, I'd say sensitive. Which is a good thing because your crying about Sasuke got old real fast."

"Hey!"

Ino laughed. "Yeah, I'm glad we're past that."

With a mock frown, Sakura exited the stall. "Don't act like you're any better. I lost sleep over listening to you moan about how much of an ass Sai is."

Ino was smirking, arms crossed. "Let's just agree that we were both equally bad."

"Sure."

She was going to miss this, this easy conversation, the memories. There was no one else in the world like Ino. But today she was going to be a stepping stone towards her advancement, she was going to be a part of something bigger and once she made it big, she won't forget Ino and her sacrifice.

Her hand made it back to the knife in her pocket. "Let's go back before the guys start wondering what's taking us so long."

"Yeah."

It would arouse unneeded suspicion to do anything while inside. Her hands shook from the anticipation, her sight zeroing in on Ino, surroundings blurring into a blob. Sakura followed Ino out of the cafe just a step behind her, watching her back, her long ponytail swish as she walked.

"Where the hell did they go?" Ino stopped, hands on her sides, observing the street.

Sakura smiled to herself. Hidan had done his part. She didn't say a word, mind clear, and followed Ino down the street, and kept her eye on any spots where she could drag Ino into.

Ino was speaking, voicing her displeasure if her scowl was any sign.

Her heart was beating so hard in her chest, hands clammy. The street was too crowded, too urban for there to really be a darker spot where she could execute the ritual in peace.

Ino was walking with a quick stride, phone in hand, avoiding running into people like a pro.

Uh oh. Distraction, quick. "Wait! I think I see them."

She swivelled on her heel. "Where?"

Sakura latched on to her hand and dragged her in a different direction, down a less travelled street that led to a particular slum that would be perfect for her needs.

"I swear when I'll find him I'll rip him a new one." Ino was ranting to herself, thankfully phone out of her hand.

They walked down the side-walk, Ino's heels clacking loudly in the much quieter district.

"Are they fucking running from us or something? What the hell! Lemme just call Deidara."

Shit. They still were some way away from the slum and the street was too well lit with too many people around. Sakura panicked and smacked the phone out of Ino's hand.

"What the fuck, Sakura! You could've-hey!"

Sakura pulled on her hand, dragging her further along.

"What's up with you? What the hell is going on?" One question after another fell from her lips.

She tuned her out, focusing on navigating the street. They were almost there.

Ino suddenly yanked her hand free, irritated. "Will you tell me what the holy hell is going on already?"

Sakura licked her dry lips, searching for an excuse. There really wasn't anything plausible coming to mind, her thoughts too scrambled.

Ino was a tick away from impatiently tapping her foot on the ground like an angry parent. Which was bad, very, very bad.

She quickly scanned her surroundings. The street was dim, only one person was on the side-walk behind them and the slum was just across the street. Ino was waiting for an explanation, arms crossed and brows drawn in a displeased frown. Sakura acted fast, taking a gamble, and slammed her hand over Ino's mouth, muffling the squeak of surprise. She took Ino by the waist and dragged her across the street, watching both sides of the road for any witnesses. Ino was struggling and screeching, but her grip was stronger.

Sakura slammed open the flimsy door of the slum with her foot and dragged Ino inside the darkness. It reeked of something stale and rotten, but she pushed the extra sensations out of her mind. She stayed close enough to the doorway for the dim streetlights to shine in some light. She let go of Ino, pushing her, and the blonde fell on the ground with a shriek. Sakura pulled out her knife, recounting the words Hidan had taught her to say during the ritual.

Ino scrambled back to her feet. "What the hell are you doing?" Her eyes were wide, lip trembling. Periodically she kept glancing at the doorway behind Sakura. It was the only visible exit.

"I'm sorry, Ino, but you'll have to die for me, for science."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Ino took involuntary steps back, continuing to search for an exit.

Sakura licked her dry lips, the metal of the knife cold in her hand. With no warning she jumped Ino, aiming her knife towards where she thought Ino's heart would be. "For Lord Jashin." She struck and Ino screamed, flailing her hands. Her knife grazed Ino's ribs instead. It was too dark and her shadow was shrouding Ino.

Blocking out any sounds Ino made, she tackled the blonde. This was just another subject, just another stepping stone towards her advancement, towards science.

Ino was sobbing, her cheeks wet. The light from the doorway hit her face just right, illuminating the fear, confusion and...betrayal on her face. Sakura tried not to think about it and how much the last one hurt. This was just a subject, no one else.

"Why? Why do this?" Her words were choked.

Sakura kept her face and voice blank, straddling her hands to her sides. "For Lord Jashin." and struck Ino again, this time hitting her goal. She recited the necessary words, starting the ritual.

Ino had ceased to struggle, her whimpers dying out.

She hurried forward, not giving herself time to second guess things, and stabbed herself in the heart. The words fell from her lips. At first she nothing happened until the pain hit her like a freight train. She gasped, barely holding her balance. White, searing pain erupted from her chest and she coughed blood. It pooled in her mouth. She punctured her lung with the stab. Black spots flew across her vision. Everything sounded like it was underwater.

Ino's glassy eyes stared back at her, judging.

She swayed, losing her balance, almost falling onto Ino. Someone caught her by her shoulders before that and helped her back to her feet.

"Sakura? Love, you there?"

A blurry outline of someone swam before her. She coughed. "I'm dying."

"Yes, it feels like that. But you're not dead yet. It's a good sign." The blur pulled the knife from her chest.

She squeaked weakly in protest, her eyelids heavy. Was this worth it? She killed her best friend and herself for the possibility of bettering her experiments. What was she thinking? If she died, her research died with her.

Someone swiped the sweaty hair from her face with a gentle touch. "It's gonna be a'right. You got this, Sakura."

Everything was spinning, her body numb. "Hidan..." She blinked, trying to clear her vision, and gripped his arms with a slippery, weak grasp. "I can't feel anything."

"Relax, everythin' is gonna be okay now." His voice sounded like it came from a different room—distant and muffled.

Her head lulled and her vision darkened. All thoughts left her.

xxx

She came to what felt like a moment later, groggy. It wasn't as dark anymore; the lighting dim. No more nasty smells or coldness.

Groaning she sat up, cradling her heavy head. She was sticky and the taste of iron prevailed in her mouth.

The room she was in was familiar, yet she couldn't place where she'd seen it before. It was dark outside and a small desk lamp beside the couch illuminated the spacious room.

Her head was spinning, and she was slightly sick to her stomach. She touched her chest, where she remembered she plunged the knife. It was sticky and stained dark brown, but didn't hurt.

"Here." A glass of water made into her field of view.

She looked up, her vision swimming momentarily from the swift action. Hidan looked the same apart from a few dark stains on his t-shirt and smears of blood across his jaw. It was a grisly sight. Was the blood hers? Or was it Deidara's? She blinked blearily before she accepted the glass.

Hidan sat on the coffee table across from her, hands resting on his knees.

She took a sip of the cool water. It was a welcome change from the nasty dryness in her mouth.

"How you feelin'?"

Nothing hurt, her dizziness was quickly clearing up. And apart from being covered in her own blood, there were no visible injuries on her skin, none that she could feel at least. Surprisingly enough even the pain in her hand that had plaguing her for years no matter how many times she healed it was gone. "Alright." She took another sip. "How long was I out?"

"Half an hour." He grinned. "Congratulations, Sakura, you're now a follower of Jashin. You got past the initiation."

Sakura licked her dry lips and swallowed thickly, staring into her half empty glass. She made it; she did the nearly impossible and got herself immortality. The victory felt hollow, yet amazing. It was the beginning of something new. She took another sip of the water. "What happened to Deidara? Did you kill him?"

Hidan scoffed. "Ha! I wish. We can't kill each other." He raised his hand, showing her the ring on his index finger. "This little thing is a contract that binds us to an oath to not hurt the members of the organization. It's possible if you like the consequences, but I don't exactly fancy feelin' excruciating pain all the time."

"Why I thought that being a Jashinist was all about pain?"

"Jashin rewards us afterwards for the pain. This shit over here ain't worth it. Anyway, I sent the blonde ponce on his way. Made a mighty fuss, but there's nothing he can do 'bout it now."

She ticked her nail against the glass with a rhythmical tink, her eyes on the signet ring. She didn't want to ask about Ino; she was better off not knowing. Chances were that her disappearance was going to get reported and cops were going to show up on her doorstep within the week. She wasn't looking forward to lying through that. Thinking about Ino hurt way more than she expected, and she pushed the feelings from her mind.

Hidan took one of her hands in his own, and the action pleasantly surprised her. "You're not thinking about backing out?"

"A bit too late for that, don't you think?"

"Well, you never know." He looked to the side, grimacing.

Sakura sighed, smiling. "I'm not going to leave you, Hidan. I'm in this too deep. And I wanna see it through."

He snorted, covering his face with his hand. "Fuck, I'm so stupid."

"Well...I can't dispute that."

Hidan mock frowned. "Fuck you."

"Only if you ask nicely."

They both burst into laughter at the same time.

She put her water glass down on the floor and pulled Hidan closer to her by his hand. He complied and settled next to her on the couch. "All this talk about organizations and Jashinism are giving me ideas."

"Do tell." He put his hand around her and twirled a strand of her messy hair around his finger.

Sakura frowned, looking down at her stained hands and shirt. She really needed a shower and a change of clothes. She was itching to go back to her lab and experiment again. She wanted to do something, anything. With her newfound power, maybe she could go even further than a backdoor quack operation. "How about we start our own organization?"

"What?"

"Y'know, to spread the message of Jashin, get more people on our side. I want to expand my horizons, I need more willing subjects to experiment on." She paused, smiling at him coyly. "Unless you want to be my test subject."

Hidan stared at her for a long while, expression unreadable. Then he leaned in and surprised her with a kiss, cradling her face. "Fuck, I think I love you."

Sakura laughed and pecked him gently back. "Is that a yes, Hidan?"

"It's a fuck yes."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ultimately my challenge with this story was trying to make both Sakura and Hidan equals. It's fairly difficult to do when the main theme is corruption. I'm still not entirely sure I managed it and that all of my attempts of trying to give Sakura some power might have the unfortunate implications of it just being Hidan's influence. Well, it is what it is and I still think that this story is a nice contrast to the stories where Sakura tames the bad guy like a disobiedent pet. It was especially fun exploring Sakura's character, imagining what she would be like if she'd gotten a different kind of obsession.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for coming with me on this journey through something darker. I know stories like this aren't everyone's cup of tea, so I'm glad for the few of you who gave this story a chance and read all through it. Thank you so much.
> 
> Also, if you're hungry for more HidaSaku, you can expect more from me during Valentines. And this time it's going to be set in canon.


End file.
